Tasselmyer Breaks School Mark in 50 Freestyle on Day One of Liberty League Championships

Ben Moeller

Swimming/Diving | 2/21/2024 8:04:00 PM

Ithaca, NY – Sophomore Connor Tasselmyer broke his own program record in the 50 freestyle on Wednesday, headlining the first day for the Clarkson University Swimming & Diving team at the Liberty League Championships.

Through the first nine events, the Golden Knights' men are in fifth place with 189.5 points, narrowly behind Skidmore College in fourth. Clarkson's women are eighth with 69 points.

Liberty League Championships Results Day One

Wednesday evening's finals began with the 500 freestyle with Casey Everett and Colin Cordy competing in the 'C' finals of the event. Everett placed 18th overall with a time of 4:50.69, which was 1.12 seconds faster than his preliminary time and a dozen seconds faster than his seed time. Cordy also was more than a second faster than his prelim time, closing out the event in 4:57.65 to take 24th place. Aiden Spoors (25th) and Tristan Miranda (26th) just missed qualifying for the finals.

Gabriela McSwieney trimmed more than three seconds off her preliminary time in the 500 freestyle, finishing in the second spot of the 'C' finals in 5:19.36, good enough for 18th place overall. Shannon Glor (29th) and Ellen Patterson (31st) came close to qualifying for the finals in the 500 freestyle, but just missed out.

The next event of the evening was the 200 individual medley, with Owen White taking top honors for the Golden Knights. White competed in the 'B' finals, finishing 16th with a time of 1:59.69, the same spot he had for the preliminaries. Landon Colby and Andrew Sammons each swam in the 'C' finals for the event. Colby took 21st overall in 1:58.69 while Sammons placed 23rd in 2:00.81. Daniel Russoti had the 29th spot in the preliminaries and Alex Estano swam the event as an exhibition.

Maria Nenadic narrowly missed out on setting a program record in the 200 individual medley, finishing in 11th place overall and the third spot in the 'B' finals. Nenadic was close to 10 seconds faster than her seed time, finishing in 2:13.90, just .53 seconds off a record set back in 2015 by Abigail Sullivan. Grace Girard was just three spots short of participating in the finals, as she took 27th in the preliminaries.

Tasselmyer set a new mark in the 50 freestyle on Wednesday morning, swimming the event in 20.55 seconds, one-seventh of a second faster than his previous mark set in February 2023. Though he didn't top that time in the finals, he still was faster than a year ago as he placed fifth in the event in 20.67 seconds. Clarkson has three other swimmers participate in the Wednesday finals for the 50 freestyle. Gavin Stuhler finished in 21.48 seconds to tie for 11th in the 'B' finals, and his time of 21.36 seconds in the preliminaries was the fastest of any swimmer in Clarkson program history not named Tasselmyer. Tim Jordan took 19th overall with a time of 21.97 seconds and Andrew Sypko was 24th in 22.20 seconds.

None of Clarkson's women qualified for the finals in the 50 freestyle, though Emily Greene was close when she took 25th in the preliminaries with a time of 25.84 seconds. Dani McDonald (29th) and Emma Cortez (37th) also performed well in their first Liberty League Championship appearances.

Clarkson had two of its three divers qualify for the finals in the 3-meter. Carter Lancto finished with 313.70 points for seventh and Max Lempert ended up with 277.50 points for eighth. Max Wang was 11th with 185.85 points in the preliminaries.

The Golden Knights closed out with a fifth-place points in the 200 medley relay as the team of Michael Schroeder, Calvin Woolfolk, Landon Colby, and Connor Tasslmyer finished in 1:34.94, just a few ticks away from setting a new school standard. Clarkson's women received eighth-place points with its 'A' relay, as the grouping of Maria Nenadic, Sydney Kanner, Grace Girard, and Gabriela McSwieney finished in 1:55.03.

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