Led by an All-NESCAC performance from Mike Chirico, Middlebury sits in eighth place out of 11 teams as the first full day of action concludes at the 2019 NESCAC Men's Swimming & Diving Championships held inside the Middlebury College Natatorium. Williams leads the team standings with 767 points, while Tufts is second with 710 points and Amherst has 627 points in third place. The Panthers sit in eighth place with 315.5 points.

On Thursday evening, the 800-yard freestyle relay team of Morgan Matsuda, Jack Dowling, Alec Wilson and Zack Einhorn touched the wall in ninth place with a time of 7:01.03.

In the opening event of Friday evening's action, the 200-yard freestyle relay team of Corey Jalbert, Will Pannos, Jake Gaughan and Brendan Leech finished sixth with a time of 1:24.01.

During the 50 backstroke, Leech stopped the clock with a mark of 23.52, good for eighth place during the championship final. Two events later, Pannos led the field to the wall in the consolation final of the 50 free with a time of 21.10 to grab ninth place in the event.

On the diving board during Friday's one-meter final, Chirico garnered his third-straight All-NESCAC effort in the event. He tallied an NCAA 'B' cut total of 445.90 points to finish in third place. Chirico was second a year ago on this board at the conference meet and third in 2017.

The final event saw the 400 medley relay quartet of Leech, Bryan Chang, Pannos and Jalbert wind up seventh in 3:25.48.

The Panthers return for the second full day 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.