HOLLAND, Mich. – Essentially tied as the anchor swimmers dove into the water, Sebastian Tostado turned in a 1:39.19 split to boost Albion College to victory in the 800-yard freestyle relay on the opening night of the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association Swimming & Diving Championship at the Holland Aquatic Center.
Tostado had a chance to pull Albion to victory after Derek Bosko achieved a lifetime best split of 1:40.30 on the third leg.
Parker Belmore gave Albion the early lead with a 1:42.14 and Mac Robertson, swimming second, finished his leg in 1:46.63.
Albion's total time of 6:48.06 was six seconds ahead of second-place Calvin College.
"On paper, Calvin was the top seed and had the middle lane," Head Coach Jake Taber said. "It was nice to have Parker lead off and turn it over to a freshman. Mac did his job and for us to be in the race at the halfway point. We had peace of mind turning it over to two of the best freestyle swimmers in MIAA history. It was awesome to see Sebastian pour it on late. It was the biggest margin of victory in the relay in my tenure as head coach at Albion."
Albion is in position to earn points in 1-meter diving after performances by Henry Swett and Jake Burris in preliminaries Thursday night. Swett sits atop the leader board, with his teammate in second. Jacob Maurer finished ninth.
Back to the pool, several time trials were contested Thursday night. Gerardo Huidobro achieved the 11th-fastest time in Division III when he completed the 200 breaststroke in a school-record time of 2:01.40. Nick Burris set a time of 57.30 in the 100 individual medley.
"Things went very well for us today. A good way to get started," Taber said.
The Thursday schedule includes the 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay events as well as individual swims in the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, and 50 free. Diving will feature the men's 1-meter and women's 3-meter competitions.