Springfield, Mass. – November 1, 2025 – The Springfield College men's swimming and diving team opened its season with a 209-91 setback to No. 7 nationally-ranked MIT on Saturday afternoon inside Art Linkletter Natatorium.

Springfield began the meet with a runner-up finish in the 200-medley relay as Dawson Milligan (Forestdale, Mass.), Viet-Anh Nguyen (East Longmeadow, Mass.), Dan Backlund (Duxbury, Mass.) and Matt Quinney (Belchertown, Mass.) combined for a time of 1:37.20 just one tenth of a second behind MIT's squad.

Backlund went on to be the lone individual victor for the Pride in the swimming portion of the meet as he claimed first in the 50-free in 21.69. He also took third in the 100-free in 47.98. Milligan went on to place fourth in the 200-IM in 2:06.52 and fifth in the 100-breast in 1:02.95, Quinney went on to place third in the 100-back in 53.79 and fourth in the 100-free in 48.45 and Nguyen went on to take third in the 50-free in 22.94 and sixth in the 100-free in 49.50.

Riley Hester (Barkhamsted, Conn.) had a nice debut for Springfield placing second in the 200-fly in 2:09.12, third in the 1000-free in 10:23.89 and third in the 500-free in 5:04.13, while Charles Deaton (Bluffton, S.C.)posted a runner-up finish in the 200-back in 2:05.78 and a fifth place finish in the 100-back in 57.58.

Backlund, Nguyen, Zavier Villanueva (Wilbraham, Mass.) and Deaton teamed up for a third place finish in the 400-free relay in 3:18.28 to round out the swimming portion of the meet.

Christian Butler (North Haven, Conn.) was stellar on the boards sweeping both diving disciplines with a 3-meter score of 285.15 and a 1-meter score of 273.01.

Springfield will host Coast Guard and Wheaton (MA) in a double dual next Saturday beginning at 11:00 am.

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