Men Finish Second at GNAC Championships; Matthews Named Coach of Year
WORCESTER, Mass. – The Regis College men's swimming and diving team continued to accumulate podium finishes on its way to a second place finish at the 2024 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Swimming and Diving Championships at the WPI Sports and Recreation Center.
After posting a preliminary time of 29.67 seconds in the morning, Ryan Kim (Los Angeles, Calif.) swam the finals in a personal-best time of 29.21 seconds to finish second in the 50 breaststroke and earn All-GNAC honors.
Cody Werner (Bettendorf, Iowa) became just the second swimmer in Regis history to complete the 200 butterfly in less than two minutes, touching the wall second with a time of 1:57.21, under the GNAC Championships record by over 6/10ths of a second. Werner concluded a very successful meet by swimming the breaststroke leg of the 400 medley relay, teaming with Aryaman Nagaraj (Watertown, Mass.), Samuel Madriz (Union, N.J.), and Michael Zammuto (Burlington, Mass.) to finish second in that event with an overall time of 4:20.09.
Nagaraj came close to a podium finish, ending up fourth in the 100 freestyle with a personal-best time of 50.74 seconds, moving into 10th on the Regis top times list in that event. Madriz finished fourth in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:14.43, and Zammuto battled to a fourth place finish in the 1650 freestyle in 25:39.29.
As a team, the Pride finished second overall with 180 points, with Norwich University taking the team title with 512 points. Head coach Diana Matthews was voted GNAC Men's Swimming and Diving Coach of the Year by her peers, and the Regis College men's swimming and diving team received the Institutional Sportsmanship Award. Madriz was selected to the GNAC Men's Swimming and Diving All-Sportsmanship Team.
In total, the Regis College men earned one individual title (Werner in the 50 butterfly) and seven All-GNAC awards as well as finished second in all five relays conducted over the weekend.