COLLEGE PARK, MD. – The No. 12 TCNJ men's swimming and diving team was crowned as winners of the inaugural NJAC Championship meet after a dominant championship Sunday performance that saw five individual event champions and four school records fall.

The Lions' historic team championship came off a stellar four day weekend performance that saw the program take gold in 15 total events, with 21 overall podium finishers, and snapping eight school records to score 1,564 points as a team.

The championship also represents the third consecutive won under the helm of head coach David Dow, with the previous two coming as a result of the program securing the best regular season conference dual meet records.

PODIUM FINISHERS

• Sophomore Gavin Formon claimed the individual title in the 1650 free after clocking in at a time of 15:32.88, which broke own school record by seven seconds. In addition, Formon's 1000 split of 9:27.25 represented a second program record, also one-upping his freshman year record.
• In the 200 back, junior Ryan Higgins continued his record-breaking ways after a brilliant swim of 1:45.88 for the individual title, and snapping his own school record set earlier in the season. Fellow junior Andrew Walter also made the podium with the third-fastest swim of 1:51.19
• Senior James McChesney completed the sprint free trifecta after cruising to a season best time of 43.55 in the 100 free for a dominant sweep.
• The 200 breast saw Ryan VanDeVeen take the win with a new program best time of 1:58.76, which broke James Shangle's 2016 school record of 1:59.13. Also qualifying for podium was fellow junior Shawn Kushner, who dropped a 2:01.11 for bronze
• The blue and gold closed out the weekend with a big 400 free relay victory, as the quartet of James McChesney, Lukas Blach, Richard Park and Milo Whitley completed the race in 3:00.30. McChesney's leadoff split of 43.48 also represented the fastest time in all of Division III.

ON THE BOARD

• Junior Ethan Weiss concluded his NJAC Championship appearance with a fourth place finish for the 3-meter dive.  

UP NEXT
The Lions are back at the TCNJ Aquatic Center next Saturday at 1 PM to host the Lion Winter Invite, before resuming postseason action with the NCAA Diving Regionals taking place March 1-2.