WORCESTER, Mass.—The Babson College swimming and diving teams provided numerous team highlights, including program records, podium finishes, and NCAA Championship 'B' cut qualifying times, on the opening night of the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championships Thursday inside WPI's Sports and Recreation Center.

The Beaver men set four new program records, earned two NCAA 'B' cut qualifying times, and sent two entries to the awards podium. The Beavers are in third place with 77 points through two events in the men's scoring, while the women's squad is in fifth place with 46 points through just one event.

The only official swimming events were the men's and women's 800-yard freestyle relays. The Babson men's contingents finished in third and 13th place while the women's quartets came in sixth and 15th place.

The Babson men's quarter of sophomore Anthony Taslakov (Sherborn, Mass.) and first-years William Iglar (Marietta, Ga.), Liam Maloney (Tampa, Fla.) and Tommy Hannenian (Sacramento, Calif.) earned a podium spot with a third-place finish in the 800 relay 'A' final in a time of 6:44.77, nearly three seconds better than the record of 6:47.76 set back at the 2020 NEWMAC Championships. This year's time was also an NCAA 'B' cut performance, the first for the Beavers under head coach Eric Thurston.

In addition, Taslakov's lead-off split time of 1:38.71 for the 200 meters broke the program record of 1:40.84 by Charles Wang in 2020 and also eclipsed the NCAA 'B' cut standard.

In the men's three-meter diving, sophomore David Krol (Grafton, Wis.) finished runner-up in his first NEWMAC Championship appearance. He posted a career-best scored of 493.50 points to qualify second in the preliminaries and went on to place runner-up in the finals for a podium finish with a score of 480.80. Krol becomes Babson's first All-Conference diver since Aaron Paradis '10 in 2010.

Senior Pat Anutarasoti (Bangkok, Thailand) turned in a pair of program records in a 100-yard butterfly time trial. His time of 48.46 in the 100 broke his own record of 49.08 set at last year's meet and met the NCAA 'B' cut qualifying standard, and his split of 22.36 in the 50 fly bettered the previous program record of 22.48 set by Alex Damiecki '20 in 2020.

The Babson men's 800 free relay 'B' team of senior Matthew D'Elia (Old Bridge, N.J.), first-years Nehemiah Rhee (Paramus, N.J.) and Dom Crisafulli (Natick, Mass.), and graduate student Cole Seeger (Lakewood, Ill.) finished third in the 'B' race in a time of 7:03.32.

Leading the Babson women was the team of first-year Samantha Gilbert (Arlington, Va.), senior Kendall Garvey (Wilbraham, Mass.), sophomore Sylvie Racicot (Arlington, Mass.) and first-year Tuana Turhan (Lake Forest, Ill.), who finished sixth in the women's 800 free relay in a time of 7:56.92, which is the second-fastest time in program history. Gilbert's 200-yard split of 1:57.72 puts her third on Babson's all-time list of top performers.

Babson's second contingent of junior Vangella Randell (Holden, Mass.), sophomore Nicolette Newsome (Bridgewater, N.J.), first-year Marta Gershanok (Closter, N.J.) and senior Sophia Silver (Fayetteville, N.Y.) took fifth in the 'B' final in a time of 8:10.79.

Day two of the NEWMAC Championships resumes on Friday morning beginning at 10 a.m.