Men's Swimming and Diving Beats Big East Foe Villanova

11/3/2023 11:31:00 PM

NEWARK, N.J. — The NJIT men's swimming and diving team picked up a huge dual meet victory, defeating the visiting Villanova Wildcats 157-139 Friday evening at the Joel & Diane Bloom Wellness and Events Center Natatorium.

After back-to-back years of identical 153-147 defeats (in Newark in 2021 and at Villanova in 2022), the Highlanders broke through against their foes from the Big East by claiming nine of the meet's 16 events.

Francois Malherbe led the Highlanders charge with four overall victories (3 individual, 1 relay). Bartosz Bryg (2 individual), Aidan Blackmon (1 individual, 1 relay), Tanish Chhabra (2 relay), and Ian Horstkamp-Vinekar (2 relay) were each involved in two wins, while Sam Deemer (1 individual), Laith Sabbah (1 relay) and Matthew Bevan (1 relay) contributed to one win each.

" I was so proud of how this team swam tonight. The past two years this meet came down to the last relay and we fell short, but tonight, the entire team stepped up and won the last relay to secure the win," head coach Ron Farina said of his team after the hard-fought triumph.

HIGHLANDER VICTORIES

Francois Malherbe: 50 Free (20.42), 100 Free (44.69), 100 Fly (49.99)
Bartosz Bryg: 100 Breast (58.43), 200 Breast (2:06.73)
Aidan Blackmon: 100 Back (50.98)
Sam Deemer: 200 Back (1:51.67)
Laith Sabbah/Tanish Chhabra/Ian Horstkamp-Vinekar/Francois Malherbe: 400 Free Relay (3:05.31)
Aidan Blackmon/Matthew Bevan/Ian Horstkamp-Vinekar/Tanish Chhabra: 200 Medley Relay (1:32.31)

STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Winning a majority of the night's races was critical to the Highlanders' victory, but just as important was NJIT taking two of the top three spots in 11 of 16 events, giving the hosts most of an event's points in nearly 75 percent of the dual.

BIG STATEMENT
NJIT's win over Villanova is the program's first over a Big East opponent since October 25, 2019, when the Highlanders defeated Providence on the road, 156.5-134.5.

NEXT UP
NJIT will have one more meet date this month - quad-team affair on Saturday, November 11 at Virginia Military Institute. The Highlanders will compete against UMBC, Howard and the host Keydets in Lexington, Va.

Print Friendly Version