Men's Swimming & Diving Shines at A-10 Championships

Friday, April 16

Geneva, OH

ALL DAY

George Washington University

Atlantic 10 Championships

Karol Mlynarczyk gets ready to swim backstroke.

4/16/2021 9:38:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Diving Results Women's Recap

Karol Mlynarczyk won three golds as part of banner day

GENEVA, Ohio - First-year Karol Mlynarczyk earned three gold medals Friday, leading an emphatic team effort from GW men's swimming and diving on the third day of the A-10 Championships at SPIRE Institute.

Mlynarczyk won both the 100 fly (:47.26) and 100 back (:46.22) in NCAA consideration times before posting a sizzling opening leg in an A-10 record 400 medley relay swim (3:10.28). His 100 back time of 46.03 seconds in the relay would've been good enough to get invited to this season's NCAA Championship and rank No. 21 on the psych sheet.

In all, GW secured nine medals Friday with four of them gold. Emils Pone had the other individual win in breaking his own A-10 record in the 400 IM (3:46.32) and was also part of the relay victory.

The Buff and Blue were represented in all six individual championship finals on the day, including three entries apiece in the 400 IM, 100 fly, 100 breast and 100 back.

In turn, GW was able to significantly grow its lead at the top of the team standings. With 576.5 points, the group from Foggy Bottom is well clear of second-place George Mason (376) going into Saturday's final day of competition.

HIGHLIGHTS
- Pone and Marek Osina took the top two spots in the 400 IM, going 1-2 in an event for the second straight day. Pone was able to shave more than a second off his A-10 record time set in 2019, while Osina's time of 3:49.30 also met the NCAA B-cut standard. Zach Hu also scored in the event in 15th place.
- Mlynarczyk's swim in the 100 fly shaved more than three-tenths of a second off his prelims time and ranks behind only NCAA qualifier Andrea Bolognesi on GW's all-time list. Kaden Schwaiger (:48.71) was fifth followed by Dylan Koo (:48.85) in sixth.
- First-year Ethan Tulenko picked up his first career individual A-10 medal in the 200 free with a second-place finish in 1:38.77. Dylan Arzoni won the B final in 1:40.08 with Oscar Madsen (10th) and Josh Legge (16th) also scoring.
- Following Thursday's win in the 50 free, Tyler Kawakami added to his growing medal collection with a silver in the 100 breast. The sophomore from Honolulu, Hawaii, clocked an NCAA B-cut time of 54.00 seconds. Youssef Ragab (:55.12) was fourth, while Eddie Cosic (:56.23) took eighth.
- In addition to Mlynarczyk's tremendous swim in the 100 back, GW got top-five finishes from Ryan Patterson (fourth, :48.76) and Schwaiger (fifth, :48.97).
- Mlynarczyk, Osina, Pone and Kawakami combined on the 400 medley relay record, besting a mark set by the Buff and Blue in 2019 by nearly two full seconds. Their time of 3:10.28 was a pool record that put them five seconds clear of second-place Saint Bonaventure.
- Competing at George Mason, Peter Nachtwey and Spencer Bystrom picked up medals on the 3-meter board. Nachtwey secured silver for his sixth career A-10 medal with a finals score of 325.90, while Bystrom took bronze with a personal-best 304.75. Nick Tomczyk placed 10th, closing out his senior season with a score of 309.90 in the B final.

.@GWCoachBThom recaps "a pretty incredible night" at the A-10 Championships! #RaiseHigh pic.twitter.com/OIP0RMMYBa
— GW Swimming & Diving (@GWSwimDive) April 17, 2021

UP NEXT: The meet wraps up Saturday with preliminary races beginning at 12:15 p.m. and finals set for 7:30 p.m. All of the action will be streamed via ESPN+.