CLINTON, NY (January 16, 2016) – Junior Anthony Walker and sophomore Jonah Strand were highlights for the Vassar College men's swimming and diving team Saturday, though the Brewers were unable to capture either of their dual meets in losses to Hamilton College (202-92) and Rochester Institute of Technology (201-94) in action from Bristol Pool.

The Brewers have been training non-stop since the beginning of the New Year, and today's dual meets were the second meets for Vassar in the last 48 hours. As expected, the exhausted arms lagged at times for Vassar, but that was seen as a positive for head coach Lisl Prater-Lee.

"We've been training as one bigger group since January 3 and we have accomplished a lot," said Prater-Lee. "We knew this meet would be a challenge but we were able to keep it in perspective, find some smaller (and sometimes larger) victories in our races and diving.  If we can do these things when tired, we can be great when we are tapered and fresh."

As has been the case all season, the pairing of Walker and Strand were the main scorers for Vassar on Saturday. Walker continued to make his case as one of the best butterfly swimmers in all of New York state Saturday, as the blistering fast junior chalked up wins in the 200 yard fly (1:59.77) and the 100 yard butterfly (53.96). Walker also helped Vassar to a 400 yard free relay runner-up finish, swimming a 49.91 as just four swimmers under a 50 second split.

Strand picked up where he left off against Trinity College on Thursday afternoon, as the sophomore captured the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:15.83, bursting out of the blocks with a 29.81 on the first 50. Strand also finished second in a heartbreaker in the 100 breaststroke, falling by 1/100^th to Tripp Miller of Hamilton after swimming a 1:02.31.

Strand finished up the day with the 200 individual medley, taking third place with a 2:07.50, just out-touching Carl Schlehr of RIT at the wall. Going back to the 400 free relay, Ian LaBash, Isaiah Hale, Walker and Greg Cristina were very strong at the walls, and Hale chalked up an impressive split of 51.45 as well.

Freshman Alex May earned fifth place in the 1000 freestyle for the Brewers with a time of 10:41.61, while Chris Cerutti was also fifth in the 100 backstroke after booking a time of 58.67. Cristina swam a strong race in the 50 free, finishing fourth in 22.92, and freshman teammate Lukas Harries was sixth with a 23.61.

In 1-meter diving, Clancy Green earned fifth place for the Brewers with a 138.10, while Marvin Corleto completed his six-dive list to go over the century mark for the second consecutive meet with a 119.65.
The Brewer men get some well-deserved time off before traveling to Montclair State University Wednesday, January 27 at 6 p.m. for a road dual meet in Montclair, NJ.