A Jumbo Swimming National Champion
Tufts University junior Roger Gu, E20, was the first Jumbo to win an NCAA swimming identify considering 1982 while he captured the 50 freestyle at the 2019 countrywide championship meet on March 20. Gu broke his faculty and New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) document with a triumphing time of nineteen.49 seconds. He edged Emory University senior Trey Collect (19.69). Gu is the first Jumbo countrywide swimming champion, given that Jim Lilley, A82, gained a hundred butterfly thirty-seven years ago. Gu is also the swimming and diving software’s first NCAA win because three-time champion diver Johann Schmidt, A14, changed into first inside the 2014 one-meter occasion.
They are ranked first in the 50 freestyle with a Tufts- and NESCAC-best time of 19. Seventy-seven seconds coming into NCAAs, Gu broke that mark inside the preliminaries with a 19.Sixty-nine. He then took -tenths of a second off that time to win the very last. The national championship meet is in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Greensboro Aquatic Center. “It’s a surreal feeling, now not just winning, but the amount of love from everybody around me,” Gu said from North Carolina. “I’m so truly blessed to be part of one of these supportive networks and couldn’t be extra grateful. The race felt tremendous, and it became an entire excellent life, so I can’t bitch. I’m proud to be a Jumbo and look ahead to continuing to represent Tufts on a national degree.”
Later that night, Gu anchored the 200 medley relay group, which completed 7th with a 1:29.44 time. They had been simply 0.18 off the school file set in advance this season at NESCAC championships (1:29.26). Also in the medley relay were Kingsley Bowen, A19, junior Matt Manfre, E20, Costa Camerano, A20. They have been eighth within the prelims (1:30.52). With the 2 All-American—top eight—honors nowadays, Gu now has three characters and five relay All-American finishes in his profession. He turned fourth within the 50 freestyle final yr. He will swim in the hundred and two hundred freestyles later this week, as well as with most Jumbo relays. Bowen’s relay All-American honour is his fourth as a Jumbo, to go together with seven-man or woman All-American awards. Manfre accomplished his 1/3 relay All-American award, and Camerano his second.
