Men's Swimming & Diving Grows Lead at A-10 Meet

Friday, February 22

Geneva, OH

ALL DAY

George Washington University

Atlantic 10 Championships

2/22/2019 11:06:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Results Women's Recap

Emils Pone starred Friday for the Colonials

GENEVA, Ohio - GW's Emils Pone claimed a pair of individual gold medals and then closed a memorable Friday night in style with a relay victory in record fashion at the Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships.

With a strong start-to-finish session highlighted by five gold medals, the Colonials grew their lead atop the team standings. The two-time defending conference champions have totaled 529 points with George Mason (444) and St. Bonaventure (307) next in line.

Pone broke Phillip Graeter's program record in the 400-yard individual medley during morning prelims and then went even faster in finals to establish a new A-10 mark of 3:47.52 to earn a repeat gold in the event.

The junior from Latvia was back in the pool for the 100-yard backstroke and blazed victory in an NCAA B-cut time of 47.27 seconds.

To close the night, Pone won his fifth gold medal of the week as part of the 400-yard medley relay. He provided the start necessary for the Buff and Blue to take down their own A-10 record set last year.

Tommi Wolst, Max Forstenhaeusler and Moritz Fath followed to finish in 3:12.06, which shaved four-tenths of a second off the previous mark.

Fath also claimed gold, winning the 200-yard freestyle. After breaking the A-10 record in the event as part of the 800-yard freestyle relay earlier in the championship, the junior from Germany left no doubt, touching in 1:35.81 to win by nearly three seconds. It was his second career win in the event after also taking gold as a first-year in 2017.

GW's divers put together a terrific performance on the 3-meter board with Peter Nachtwey earning gold with a score of 354.15. Following three silver-medal efforts, the sophomore from Ohio earned the first A-10 gold medal for a men's diver in the program since Harry Nicholakos and Eric Davis swept the boards in 1994.

Senior Jake Ortiz also landed on the podium, posting an NCAA Zones qualifying score of 320.75 to take bronze. Nick Tomczyk (10th) and Nick Malloy (12th) also scored in the event.

GW flashed its depth once again, qualifying 15 swimmers and four divers for finals.

Andrew Cho took fourth in the 100 back in a career-best time of :47.91) and first-year James Torrez won the B final.

In the 200 free, Patrick Lersch won a swim-off to earn the last spot in the B final and then won it. Alex Auster (16th) also scored in the event.

Wolst (fourth) and Charles Sturgeon (eighth) both made the A final in the 100-yard breaststroke with Kyle Hrabovsky 11th on the strength of a career-best swim, while Josh Legge (eighth) and Youssef Ragab (11th) both scored in the 400 IM.

Max Forstenhaeusler paced the Colonials in the 100-yard butterfly, finishing seventh in 48.96 seconds. Dylan Arzoni (13th) and Torrez (15th) also scored there.

UP NEXT: A-10 champions will be crowned Saturday after a final day of competition. Preliminary events begin at 10 a.m. with finals starting at 6:30 p.m. The full schedule is available here.

WATCH THIS: Hear from head coach Brian Thomas and Emils Pone after the third day of the A-10 Championships.
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'Another amazing night for us.'
Hear from @GWCoachBThom, Emils Pone and Meghan Burton after the third night of @atlantic10 Championships. #RaiseHigh pic.twitter.com/1yCtdeTsvy
— GW Swimming & Diving (@GWSwimDive) February 23, 2019

Also, hear from head diving coach Wesley Mattice, Ortiz and Nachtwey after Friday's diving session.

Terrific night for our divers! Hear from Head Diving Coach Wesley Mattice, Jake Ortiz and Peter Nachtwey. #RaiseHigh pic.twitter.com/dx4famlfPb
— GW Swimming & Diving (@GWSwimDive) February 23, 2019