GEORGETOWN, Texas - Albion College Head Coach Jake Taber could not have been happier after his team defeated 31st-ranked Southwestern University, 183-91, to cap a week of intensive training during the break between semesters.
"It was a really nice way to end an encouraging trip," Taber said. "It would have been easy to find excuses coming off a week of training. We put a lot on them between dry land workouts, the weight room and in the water."
Albion took first place in every event, though it did not have its athletes score in the 200 individual medley, 3-meter diving and the 200 freestyle relay.
Swimmers Parker Belmore, Derek Bosko, Gerardo Huidobro, Alec Nyboer and Sebastian Tostado and diver Jake Burris were multiple event winners.
Belmore, in his first competition since November, shaved nearly two seconds off his season-best times in his events, achieving a time of 2:01.84 in the IM and 2:01.12 in the 200 backstroke. He added a runner-up finish to teammate Ian Moran in the 100 backstroke.
"To see Parker respond so favorably was encouraging," Taber said. "He got a little better every time he dove in. He's an important piece for us."
Bosko swept the sprint freestyle events, Tostado swam past the field in the 200 and 500 freestyle events, Huidobro touched the wall first in the breaststroke events and Nyboer took charge of the butterfly events.
Nick Deppner and Chris Breen combined to score 13 points by taking the top two places in the 1,000 freestyle.
Albion also scored a number of runner-up finishes, including Mac Robertson in the 500 freestyle, Tyler Kimbrell in the 100 breaststroke, Nate Kozycki in the 100 butterfly and Henry Swett in 1-meter diving. Though he was not involved in the team score, Jake Maurer finished second in 3-meter diving.
Albion did not score in the 200 free relay, but it touched the wall first. Tostado, Len Ciemniecki, Bosko and Troy Trombley completed their race in 1:27.63.
Albion's winning time in the 200 medley relay (Nyboer, Kimbrell, Kozycki and Bosko) was 1:38.27.
The Britons will return to Michigan Wednesday to begin training for a Jan. 14 dual meet against the nationally ranked squad from Calvin College.
