Middlebury took part in the first day of the 2018 NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships held inside the Greason Pool on the campus of Bowdoin College. Tufts leads the team standings with 622 points, while Williams is second with 594 points and Amherst has 541.5 points for third. The Panthers sit in eighth place with 235 points.
In the opening event of the evening, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Will Pannos, Brendan Leech, Alex Smith and Keegan Pando finished 10th with a time of 1:25.61.
During the 50 backstroke, Leech tallied a third-place effort in the consolation final, finishing the event in 24.34 for 11th place overall. One event later, Connor McCormick also touched the wall in 11th place overall during the 200 individual medley with a mark of 1:54.68.
On the diving board during Friday's one-meter final, a pair of Panthers placed in the top-five spots. Mike Chirico improved upon his 2017 finish by one spot, accumulating 468.10 points for a runner-up effort, All-NESCAC honors and an NCAA 'B' cut. Teammate Will Greene racked up 387.30 points, good for fifth place.
The final event of the opening day saw the 400 medley relay quartet of Charles Quinn, McCormick, Pannos and Leech wind up seventh in 3:26.51.
The Panthers return for day two of the championship Saturday with the morning preliminaries scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m., while the finals session will start at 5:50 p.m.
