CLARION, Pa. – The Golden Eagle men's swimming & diving team returned to action in Tippin Natatorium on Saturday afternoon, defeating Allegheny by a score of 149-53. Clarion boasted the top finisher in 10 of 11 events on the afternoon, and in many cases finished in the top three in the standings in multiple events. 

"This crew has big goals and wants big results," said head coach Bree Kelley. "It takes week by week progress, learning, developing and making changes, and that's exactly what we did today"

Things got off to a hot start in the 200 Medley Relay, with the quartet of Nick Soares, Paul Flowers, Brenek Strawn and Austin Prokopec outracing the Allegheny "A" team by nearly two full seconds. The Golden Eagles paced the field with a final time of 1:37.90. That led to a steadfast performance in the first men's distance event of the day, as Clarion grabbed the first two spots in the 1000 Free. Bobby Shotts raced to a 10:58.74 final time, while Devon Lonergan took second with a time of 11:22.37.

Connor Cary kept the wins going with a top finish in the 200 Free, with a time of 1:45.25. Strawn and Prokopec put in a strong performance in the 50 Free taking first and second with times of 21.79 and 22.31 respectively. 

The Golden Eagles put up the top three finishers in the 200 IM, as David Bocci paced the field with a time of 1:58.24, while Mason Irwin and Michael Lintelman touched the wall with times of 1:59.60 and 2:03.34. 

The blue and gold repeated their top three podium finish in the very next event as the trio of Cary, Nolan Songer and Aidan Mohren took the top three spots. Cary paced the event with a final mark of 50.89, six seconds ahead of the next closest finisher.  

Irwin picked up a win of his own in the 100 Free racing to a final time of 48.48 for 9 team points for the Golden Eagles. 

Soares, Corey Mock and Jimmy Conner went one, two, three in the 100 Back grabbing 16 total team points, while Soares paced the field with a final time of 53.20.

Bocci led off another huge result in the 500 Free, winning with a time of 4:46.25, almost 15 seconds faster than the second place finisher. The 200 Free Relay team closed out the day with a win, finishing in 1:27.35. 

The swimmers were not the only ones enjoying an exciting day, as the men's divers saw some history as well as NCAA qualifying marks hit. Zack Schering set a new pool record for the renovated Tippin Natatorium in the 1m Dive, making an NCAA cut with a 468.23 in the 11-dive competition. Schering also led his teammates in the 3m Dive, scoring a 314.40.