Feb. 16, 2007

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ - Finishing the first day of the Metropolitan Swimming Conference championship meet in ninth place, the NJIT men's team are on their way to their best finish in the history of the program.

The Highlanders squad of Hayk Ekshian, Alan Roberts, Rob Franc and Marc Ubaldi started the morning off right with a school record in the 200 yard freestyle relay in the preliminary round of competition. Their time of 1:30.11; the eight fastest of the morning; was enough to advance them to the championship final. This is the first time an NJIT relay team has qualified that high.

Marc Ubaldi broke his own school record in the 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:03.53 and qualified for his first ever individual final event. In the 50 yard freestyle, Ekshian and Roberts recorded times that pushed them through to the evening finals.

The Highlanders ended the morning with another school record in the 400 Medley Relay. Marc Ubaldi, Alan Roberts and Hayk Ekshian teamed with Jim Paccioretti to record the ninth fastest time of the event and secure the top slot in the consolation final. Their time of 3:46.18 broke the previous record by over two seconds.

Moving on to the scoring round on Friday evening, the Highlanders continued to shine. In the 200 yard freestyle relay the squad improved their time to 1:29.27 and moved up to earn a seventh place finish. Ubaldi, Ekshian and Roberts each scored points in their individual events further adding to the team point total.

In the final event of the night, the Highlanders won the consolation final of the 400 yard Medley Relay with outstanding performances from all four athletes. Their time of 3:44.57 lowered their record by another 1.5 seconds.

After day one of the three day meet, NJIT is in ninth place.