Meet results

Piscataway, NJ … The College of New Jersey men's swimming team and diving captured its ninth consecutive title at the 2015 Metropolitan Conference Championships held in the Sonny Werblin Recreation Center at Rutgers University.
 
The Lions continued their dominance at METs, compiling 1,404 points in the three-day meet. Rowan University finished second with 1,286 points, while the University of Bridgeport took third with 1,124.5 points.
 
The successful weekend also marked the 18^th MET championship overall in program history. All 18 of those titles came under Head Coach Brian Bishop, who started with the program in 1989-90. Bishop was named the 2015 MET Coach of the Meet.
 
Sophomore Ryan Gajdzisz (Scotch Plains, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) capped off a tremendous weekend by breaking two school records in the 1650-freestyle event. He topped the field in the distance race with a time of 15:47.23. The record was previously held by Michael Caputo '13, who is currently an assistant coach for the Lions. In the first 1,000 yards of the race, Gajdzisz broke his own 1000-free record by clocking 9:35.83.
 
In that same race, freshman Logan Barnes (Columbia, NJ/Northern Burlington) finished second runner-up with a time of 16:06.54. Sophomore Jason Ivins (Ewing, NJ/Notre Dame) was right behind Barnes in fourth place with a time of 16:08.52. In total, the Lions racked up 85 points in the event.
 
TCNJ produced three NCAA B-cut times in the 200-backstroke. One night after breaking his own record in the 100-back, senior Aleksander Burzynski (Colonia, NJ/St. Joseph's) narrowly missed another record-setting performance. He placed third with a time of 1:50.51, which is less than two-tenths of a second off the record held by Stephen Tarnowski '14.  Junior Dante Colucci (Summit, NJ/St. Peter's Prep) reached back to touch the wall fourth in the race in 1:52.49 and sophomore Jin Roh (Tenafly, NJ/Tenafly) followed with a fifth-place time of 1:53.04. Senior Dennis Hall-App (Bloomfield, NJ/Bloomfield) finished 11^th overall, posting a finish of 1:55.93.
 
Seniors Brett Pedersen (Sewell, NJ/St. Augustine Prep), senior Brian Perez (Matawan, NJ/St. John Vianney) and junior Joseph Dunn (Fanwood, NJ/Scotch Plains-Fanwood) all qualified for the 100-freestyle A-final. Pedersen took third overall with an NCAA B-cut time of 44.94. Dunn and Perez placed fifth and sixth, clocking 45.81 and 45.83. Senior Christopher Dunn (Rutherford, NJ/Rutherford) qualified for the B-final and earned 11 points by finishing 16^th overall in 48.74.
 
The 200-breaststroke title at METs belongs to junior James Shangle (Highland Park, NJ/Highland Park) in 2015. He topped everyone in the field with a time of 2:02.04. Sophomore Vince Masciandaro (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) and freshman Chris O'Sullivan (Lebanon, NJ/Voorhees) also raced in the B-final. Masciandaro placed second in that race with a finish of 2:08.03. O'Sullivan was fourth in the heat, posting a time of 2:10.42.
 
Sophomore Scott Vitabile (East Windsor, NJ/Hightstown) registered an NCAA B-cut time in the 200-butterfly. His time of 1:52.15 was the third-fastest overall in the event. Barnes competed in the B-final and finished third in that race with a time of 1:56.84.
 
In the final event, the team of Joe Dunn, Perez, Vitabile and Pedersen combined for a runner-up finish in the 400-free relay. Their time of 2:59.42 was an NCAA provisional time and put the final exclamation point on the program's ninth straight title.
 
TCNJ will await word on qualifiers for the 2015 NCAA championships. The meet will be held in Shenandoah, TX from March 18 – 21.