Nicholson Wins 400 IM and Breaks Another School Record as Bucknell Men Stand Third at PL Swimming and Diving Championships

Friday, February 18

Lewisburg, Pa.

6:00 PM

Bucknell University

Patriot League Championships - Finals

Nicholson Wins 400 IM and Breaks Another School Record as Bucknell Men Stand Third at PL Swimming and Diving Championships

2/18/2011 7:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving

By: TBD

Feb. 18, 2011

Results | Photo Gallery

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Freshman Mike Nicholson (Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley) toppled a school record for the second straight day and became the first Bison rookie since 2007 to win a Patriot League title as he claimed the 400-yard individual medley crown Friday evening at Kinney Natatorium during the second day of the Patriot League Championships. Bucknell stands third in the team standings, just seven points behind second-place Army. Navy holds a commanding lead of nearly 300 points.

Nicholson's impressive winning time in the 400 IM was 3 minutes, 52.09 seconds, which is an NCAA "B" time. He touched the wall 1.06 seconds ahead of second-place Justin Vagts of Navy and shaved nearly five seconds off the previous school record of 3:56.81, held by Luke Trafton since 2009. Nicholson also knocked more than seven seconds off his previous best of 3:59.26.

With his win, Nicholson became the first Bucknell freshman to win an individual Patriot League title since Trafton claimed the 1,650 free in 2007. He is having quite a meet as he finished third in the 200 IM on Thursday in a time that was nearly one second faster than the previous program record that had stood for 23 years.

Plenty of Bison had success on Friday as 10 new program top-10 marks were recorded and five different student-athletes posted top-five finishes in an individual event.

Thomas Brown (Ridgefield, Conn./Ridgefield) finished second in the 100 back, Matthew Segar (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) took third in the 200 free, 2010 Patriot League champion (50 free) Eric Sokolosky (Branford, Conn./Branford) claimed fourth in the same race and Christian Treat (Evergreen, Colo./Clear Creek) was fifth in the 100 breast, rounding out the list of Bucknell top-five finishers. For Sokolosky (3rd in 50 free on Thursday) and Treat (4th in 200 IM on Thursday), it marked their second straight day with top-five showings.

While they did not set school records like Nicholson, Segar (200 free - 1:38.41), Treat (100 breast - 56.36) and Brown (100 back - 50.04) all got pretty close, recording the second-best times in program history in their respective events.

The three-day Patriot League Championships will conclude on Saturday. The prelims will start at 10:30 a.m., while the finals will start at 6 p.m.

Team Scores
1. Navy - 668
2. Army - 393
3. Bucknell - 386
4. Colgate - 251
5. Lehigh - 240
6. American - 142
7. Lafayette - 137
8. Holy Cross - 100

Patriot League Titles
Mike Nicholson - 400 IM

New Top-10 Times
400 IM (1. Mike Nicholson - 3:52.09; 3. Billy Krause - 3:57.30)
200 free (2. Matthew Segar - 1:38.41; 4. Eric Sokolosky - 1:39.72)
100 breast (2. Christian Treat - 56.36; 3. Nathaniel Frye - 56.39)
100 fly (6. Trevor Reitz - 50.28)
100 back (2. Thomas Brown - 50.04)
200 medley relay (8. Brown, Frye, Reitz, Sokolosky - 1:32.52)
800 free relay (3. Segar, Treat, Stevens, Ramey - 6:43.69)