Highlanders are the 2018 ECAC Winter Champions

Written by: Deric Raymond
Published: Monday, December 3, 2018
Legband and Bonner Earn Firsts on Final Day as NJIT Wins by 329 Points

NJIT posted 1635 points to win by a whopping 329 points over the 10-team field and second-place Monmouth University (1306). In addition, NJIT's first-year head swimming and diving coach, Ron Farina, was named "Coach of the Meet."

The Top-5 was rounded out by Fairfield University (1152.5), Manhattan College (1048) and Lafayette College (945).

"I am very proud of this team. It was a total team effort, as we got performances from everybody and every event," Farina said. "Multiple personal-best times and some very fast in-season times. This meet was a very good indicator of the character of this team and I'm pleased with how how strong we swam on the last day of the championships."

Leading into the final day, the Highlanders continued to go full throttle over the competition on Sunday.

Freshman Kai Legband set the tone early, as he won his second individual race of the three-day meet by taking the 100 Yard Freestyle. His time of 0:45.05 was nearly a minute and a hlaf ahead of his teammate Joshua Franco -- who placed second in the event at 0:46.53.

Junior Nicholas Lyons followed with a first-place finish in the 200 Yard Breaststroke with a time of 2:06.31, out-touching Lafayette's Michael Gorgan (2:07.01).

Sophomore Mattheau Bonner became the next victorious Highlanders swimmer, when he took first place in the 200 Yard Butterfly. His time of 1:52.92 was good for nearly a full second ahead of the second-place finisher, Tanner McFarland of Lafayette (1:53.80).

The Highlanders put a bow on their championship when they won their fourth relay of the meet. The quartet of Legband, Franco, Lyons and junior Tyler Pollock took the 400 Yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:05.98 that was more than two seconds better than a team from Manhattan (3:08.26).

In other notable performances, freshman Edward Madrigal earned a third-place finish in both the 200 Yard Backstroke (1:55.05) and 200 Yard Butterfly (1:56.04), with freshman Justin Andersen touching right behind for fourth place in the latter.

The 2018 ECAC Champions have more than a month off before returning to the pool in the new year with a road meet against Florida Atlantic University. The meet is scheduled for 1 p.m. in Boca Raton, Fl.

To view and download the full results, visit https://www.njithighlanders.com/documents/2018/12/2//2018_Winter_ECAC_FINAL_RESULTS.pdf?id=2641.