<lign: justify">The Carleton College men’s swimming team won eight of the sixteen events but came up short against the University of St. Thomas, 162.5 to 125.5, in the annual celebration of the Margate Memorial Trophy.
When racing got underway, the meet began with an extremely close 200-yard medley relay. The Knights nearly rallied from about a half-body length, touching the wall at 1:40.71, which was 0.01 second behind the Tommies’ top entry. Surprisingly, this would not end up being the closest race of the session.
That honor would go to a tie between Carleton’s Evan Lahr ‘17 and the Tommies’ Mikey Solfelt. Both swimmers posted times of 48.75 in the 100-yard freestyle relay.
Alex Mathson ‘17 grabbed the top spot in the two long-distance races. During the 1000-yard freestyle, he battled neck and neck with UST’s Walker Matthews for much of the race before pulling away over the last 100 yards to finish with an eight-second victory at 10:19.55. Back in the water toward the end of the night, Mathson led wire-to-wire and finished at a 4:59.28 clip.
Evan Harris ‘15 earned the Knights’ next victory with more than a one-second advantage in the 100-yard breaststroke. He reached the wall at 1:00.72. Harris would also prevail in the 200 breaststroke, but this one was closer as his time was 2:16.90. He completed a trifecta with the top result in the 200-yard individual medley, holding off a Tommie by 0.06 second at 2:03.01.
George McAneny ‘16 and Lahr finished 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle with times of 21.60 an 22.13 respectively. Not long after McAnney would finish third in the 100 freestyle as Lahr and Solfelt would share the spotlight.
Benito Ramirez ‘14 was runner up in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:48.79, and Aaron Schwab ‘17 placed second in both the 100-and 200-yard backstroke.
The evening concluded with McAneny, Stephen Grinich ‘16, Ramirez, and Lahr winning the freestyle relay in 1:27.28.