PASADENA, Calif. — The Caltech men's swim & dive team competed in its final home meet of the 2023-24 season on Saturday as the squad picked up a massive win over the Whittier College Poets on Senior Day. The Beavers defeated the guests by a final score of 207.5 to 55.5.

The meet featured a number of excellent performances, but perhaps none greater than that of junior Evan Zhang (Great Falls, Va. / Thomas Jefferson) in the 50-yard freestyle. The most recent SCIAC Men's Swimmer of the Week, posted a historic race, tapping the wall at 20.63 seconds to set a new school record. Zhang beat the previous record by .01 seconds.

It was not the only race of the day for Zhang, who kicked off the swimming events by leading his relay group to a win in the 200-yard medley relay. Zhang joined sophomores Kevin Cai (San Antonio, Tex. / Ronald Reagan), Max Chen (Boyds, Md. / Poolesville) and Siddhartha Ojha (Lake Forest, Ill. / Lake Forest) in the pool, where the foursome put up a 1:37.83 performance. The squad finished .07 seconds ahead of a fellow group of Beavers, who earned second. Caltech's third relay group nabbed third place, ahead of Whittier's top team.

Zhang continued his dominance in the early afternoon as he swam 51.65 seconds to handily win the 100-yard butterfly. The standout beat out the next fastest finisher by nearly two full seconds.

The star later competed in the 400-yard freestyle relay, as he, Chen, Chai and junior Sam Small (Ringwood, U.K. / Ringwood School) swam 3:13.37 to grab first place.

Senior Naci Keskin (Istanbul, Turkey / Robert College of Istanbul) scooped a win in the 100-yard backstroke (55.73) while senior Leo Yang (Blacksburg, Va. / Blacksburg) collected a victory in the 200-yard freestyle after posting a quick time of 1:45.16.

First-year Tommaso Colombo (Shanghai, China / Wellington College International Shanghai) earned first place in the 100-yard breaststroke; fellow rookie Ryan Lin (Millbrae, Calif. / Stanford Online) secured the win in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:15.87).

The Beavers swept the men's 200-yard butterfly, with first-year Reid Nussbaum (Cohasset, Mass. / Cohasset) picking up the victory and putting himself in the all-time program top-10 list after swimming a 1:57.24.

Sophomore Simon Hu (Clarksville, Md. / River Hill) won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 47.13 before taking the win in the 200-yard IM (2:01.85).

First-year Zachary Pestrikov (Rye, N.Y. / Iona Prepatory) notched the victory in the 200-yard backstroke.

In diving, sophomore Aaban Syed (Laurel, Maryl. / North County) posted a 219.75 in the 1-meter while scoring a 240.55 in the 3-meter.

Head coach Andrew Brabson was pleased with how the group performed, especially during a period of substantial training.

"Today was a fun meet to celebrate our seniors and all that they have contributed to the team and campus during their careers," said Brabson. "We are still in the midst of some very tough training and I was proud of the way that our team battled through the fatigue," he said.

"Obviously, [Zhang's] team record in the 50 free was a tremendous highlight, but we also had a lot of extremely strong, tough races and performances on the boards as well," said the coach. "We are looking forward to continuing to fine-tune the details as we build toward our last two dual meets and SCIAC Champs."

The squad will compete in purely road meets from here on out, with their next challenge coming in Orange, California as they face Pomona-Pitzer Colleges and hosts Chapman University on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 10:30 a.m. Follow gocaltech.com/coverage for video and live stats.

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