RESULTS

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The Calvin men's swimming and diving team had a strong night of competition at the Calvin Quad Invitational featuring teams from Calvin, Albion, Ohio Northern and Carthage.

Calvin built a day one team score of 510 points behind several strong swims.

Calvin's distance contingent flashed off its depth by taking the top five spots in the 500 freestyle led by freshman Carter Nelson (Byron Center, Mich./Byron Center HS) who won the race in 4:33.79. Senior Ryan Halberg (Novi, Mich./Northville HS) took second (4:40.51), senior Andrew Stimpert (Normal, Ill./Normal West HS) third (4:46.83), senior William Pettifer (Cincinnati, Oh./Mariemont) fourth (4:47.38) and junior Alex Bergsma (Carmel, Ind./Carmel HS) fifth (4:48.86).

The Knights swept the top six spots in the 50 freestyle led by sophomore Jackson Merkel (Grandville, Mich./Grandville HS) who blazed his way to a win in 20.79. Sophomore Kellen Morford (Medina, Oh./Medina HS) was second (20.82), sophomore David Gabrielle (Bethlehem, Pa. /Liberty HS) third (21.26), senior Will Bales (Lansing, Mich./Lansing Everett HS) fourth (21.49), freshman Lucas Ritsema (Byron Center, Mich./Byron Center HS) fifth (21.65) and sophomore Daniel Miller (Arlington, Tex./Arlington HS) sixth (21.68).

Calvin took five of the top six spots in the 200 IM led by senior Tim Hays (Arlington, Ill./Prospect HS) in second (1:51.75). Junior Cardin Nguyen (Colorado Springs, Colo. Cheyenne Mountain) was third (1:57.49), freshman Isaac Wheeler (Bluffton, Ind./Home School) fourth (1:58.92), junior Andrew Taulbee (Reynoldsburg, Oh./Reynoldsburg HS) fifth (1:59.11) and senior Logan Yakubowski (Hazleton, Pa./Hazleton Area HS) sixth (1:59.46).

Freshman Brodie Brown (Hamilton, Mich./Hamilton HS) won the one-meter diving (452.30) with sophomore Miles Lee (Chicago, Ill./Home School) third (331.65).

Calvin swept both relays.

Merkel, Hays, sophomore Antoine Douguet (Paris, France Ecole Diagonale) and Halberg won the 400 medley relay (3:19.19).

Morford, Gabrielle, Bales and Merkel won the 200 freestyle relay (1:22.78).

COACHES COMMENT: "A real solid evening," said Calvin head swim coach Dan Gelderloos. "The thing that I like about this meet is that there is not a ton of pressure riding on it but there is also the opportunity for good competition. I thought we had some strong performances tonight and good attitudes with the performances we saw up on the board. We will need to continue that same attitude tomorrow as we have a busy day ahead of us."

NEXT UP: Calvin will close out the Quad Meet with two sessions on Saturday with the opening session set for 10 a.m. and the final session set for 4:30 p.m.