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

Thursday, April 15

Geneva, OH

ALL DAY

George Washington University

Atlantic 10 Championships

Dylan Koo, Karol Mlynarczyk, Ethan Tulenko & Tyler Kawakami pose with their 200 free relay gold medals.

4/15/2021 9:06:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Diving Results Women's Recap Swimming Results

Buff & Blue secured four golds Thursday

GENEVA, Ohio - GW men's swimming and diving surged into the lead at the A-10 Championships on Thursday with a strong performance that showcased the program's top-end quality and depth.

The Buff and Blue secured four of the five gold medals awarded on the day, culminating with a first-place finish from the 200 free relay team of Karol Mlynarczyk, Ethan Tulenko, Dylan Koo and Tyler Kawakami. Oscar Madsen (500 free), Marek Osina (200 IM) and Kawakami (50 free) also recorded individual first-place finishes.

History was made along the way: Osina took down an Atlantic 10 record in his victory, while Kawakami and Mlynarczyk (leading off the relay) became the first two GW swimmers to complete the 50 free in less than 20 seconds.

With 274 points, GW has made the leap from the bottom of the team standings to the top with two days left to go. George Mason (195), Saint Bonaventure (189) and UMass (180) are next in line.

HIGHLIGHTS
- Madsen started the evening with a strong swim to win the 500 free in a personal-best time of 4:27.75 that's good for No. 4 on the program's all-time top 10. The sophomore bettered his prelims swim by nearly three seconds in leading six GW scorers in the event: DH Hwang (fourth), Zach Hu (fifth) and Josh Legge (eighth) joined in the A final, while Brendan Conley (13th) and Ian Molloy (15th) were in the B final.
- Osina engaged in an epic battle vs. teammate Emils Pone in the 200 IM, just winning the race to the wall in 1:45.18 to beat the conference record held by Pone since 2019. Pone's silver-medal time of 1:45.43 also edged that mark for a personal best. Dylan Arzoni also advanced to the B final there, taking 15th.
- In the 50 free, Kawakami led wire-to-wire in a program-record time of 19.97 seconds, pacing four Colonials among the top 10 in Ethan Tulenko (fifth), Ryan Patterson (sixth) and Dylan Koo (10th).
- Kawakami's record stood for less than an hour because Mlynarczyk led off the night-closing 200 free relay with a split of 19.96 seconds to set a new mark. Tulenko and Koo followed with solid legs before Kawakami brought it home for his second gold of the night. The team of three first-years and a sophomore combined to finish in 1:20.58, just clear of second-place Davidson.
- Diving at George Mason's Aquatic and Fitness Center, senior Nick Tomczyk was GW's top finisher on the 1-meter board, bettering his prelims score by more than 20 points to take fifth with 279.00. Peter Nachtwey was seventh (277.85), while Spencer Bystrom placed ninth by winning the B final with 273.40.

.@GWCoachBThom recaps a terrific night for our men that included four gold medals and a pair of program records. #RaiseHigh pic.twitter.com/133CuqgDsq
— GW Swimming & Diving (@GWSwimDive) April 16, 2021

UP NEXT: The meet continues Friday with preliminary races beginning at 12:15 p.m. and finals set for 7 p.m. Diving prelims begin at 9:30 a.m. at George Mason's Aquatic and Fitness Center with finals at 3 p.m. All of the action will be streamed via ESPN+.