WORCESTER, Mass. - The Saint Michael's College men's swimming & diving team shattered an 800-yard freestyle relay school record on Thursday evening during day one of the Northeast-10 Conference Championship at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) Sports & Recreation Center.
 
Senior Will Englehardt (Sparta, N.J./Sparta), juniors Rafael Kowal (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh/Alfred State) and Connor Quirbach (Lowell, Mass./Chelmsford), and first-year Lucas Haynes (Holliston, Mass./Holliston) all played hands in the mark.
 
STANDINGS

• The Purple Knight men stand fourth among seven schools following the opening day with 53 points, while the women are tied with Assumption University for fifth (38) out of eight squads. Both are one point shy of fourth-place Adelphi University.

MEN'S MEET
SAINT MICHAEL'S LEADERS

• Senior Will Englehardt (Sparta, N.J./Sparta), 1 school record
  • 2nd school record of season
• Junior Rafael Kowal (Plattsburgh, N.Y./Plattsburgh/Alfred State), 1 school record
  • 3rd school record of season
• Junior Connor Quirbach (Lowell, Mass./Chelmsford), 1 school record
  • 1st school record of season
• First-year Lucas Haynes (Holliston, Mass./Holliston), 1 school record
  • 3rd school record of season

THE ACTION

• The men's A 800-yard freestyle relay, composed of Englehardt, Haynes, Kowal and Quirbach, shattered a year-old program record by 9.07 seconds, clocking in at 6:57.13 to place fourth in the event, tying for the top relay finish at an NE10 Championship in program history. Englehardt, Kowal and Quirbach also swam legs on the 2024 relay. The Purple Knights entered the event seeded seventh with a time of 7:21.54 but dropped the most time among all 15 foursomes in the race, trimming 24.41 ticks.
• Saint Michael's also took fourth among B 800 free relays, placing 12th overall (7:35.65). Senior Timmy Voelker (Stockholm, N.J./Wallkill Valley Regional), sophomore Hunter Daily (Amherst, N.H./Souhegan), and first-years Nate Alexander (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) and Dylan Reichl (Loudonville, N.Y./Shaker) swam legs.
• Haynes finished fourth in the 1,000-yard freestyle (9:52.38), coming within 0.46 seconds of a podium finish, after entering the night seeded first in the event. Sophomore Cal Baird (Saratoga Springs, N.Y./Saratoga Springs) cut 6.98 seconds from his seed time to take 12th (10:25.24), and Alexander dropped 22.40 seconds to secure the 16th and final scoring spot (10:38.89).

WOMEN'S MEET
THE ACTION

• The women's 800 free relay moved up two spots from its original seed to place sixth (8:09.22), coming within 3.33 seconds of an eight-year-old program record. Senior Margaret Wilk (Hardyston, N.J./Pope John XXIII Regional) and sophomores Ashley Meade (Belle Harbor, N.Y./Sacred Heart Academy), Madeline Waldt (Abingdon, Md./The Catholic High School of Baltimore) and Ayden Walsh (Tallahassee, Fla./Creekside) all swam legs.
• Waldt also completed the 1,000 free on Thursday evening, taking 11th place (11:06.71). First-year Shay Callanan (Shaftsbury, Vt./Mount Anthony Union) claimed 17th (11:31.12), one position short of a scoring spot.

NEXT SAINT MICHAEL'S MEET

• Friday at Day 2 of NE10 Championship.
• Morning session begins at 10:15 a.m. and evening session starts at 6 p.m.