The Middlebury men's swimming and diving team began the 2022 NESCAC Championships on Thursday evening, competing in the 800-yard freestyle relay. Colby is hosting the four-day meet for the first time inside the Colby Aquatics Center. Williams sits atop the team standings following the opening night with 90 points, while Tufts (76), Amherst (72), Connecticut College (72) and Bates (68) round out the top-five teams. Middlebury sits in a tie for seventh place with the host school at 56 points.
 
In the fourth and final heat of the evening, the Panther quartet of Riley Griffis, Aidan McKenrick, Pierce Bigelow and Jack Paul swam to a seventh-place finish with a time of 6:47.90 for 46 team points. A few heats earlier, the Middlebury team of Chris Weber, Matthew Hensel, Fran Curran and Andrew Planting touched the wall with a time of 6:57.28.
 
Competition resumes on Friday morning with preliminaries at 10:00 a.m., followed by diving at 2:00 p.m. and the finals of the nine morning events at 6:00 p.m.