Springfield, Mass. – January 17, 2026 – The Springfield College men's swimming and diving team was clipped by Middlebury College by just one point, 149-148, in a dual meet on Saturday afternoon inside the Art Linkletter Natatorium. The meet came down to the final relay of the day.

As a team, Springfield won nine of 16 events this afternoon. 

Individually Riley Hester (Barkhamsted, Conn.) claimed first place in three different events including the 1000-free in 9:49.17, the 200-fly in 1:56.04 and the 500-free in 4:41.62. 

The Pride began the meet with a first place time of 1:35.91 in the 200-medley relay as Matt Quinney (Belchertown, Mass.), Viet-Anh Nguyen (East Longmeadow, Mass.), Dawson Milligan (Forestdale, Mass.) and Dan Backlund (Duxbury, Mass.) combined for the win.

Backlund went on to win the 200-free in 1:47.00 and the 100-free in 47.30 and place second in the 100-fly in 53.53, while Milligan claimed first in the 100-back in 54.25. Quinney and Nguyen went 2-3 in the 100-breast with times of 59.15 and 1:03.48, respectively, while Nguyen was Springfield's top swimmer in the 50-free with a time of 22.84. Quinney also notched a runner-up finish in the 200-breast in 2:12.86 and the 200-IM in 2:00.15.

in the final event of the meet – the 200-free relay, Nguyen, Milligan, Zavier Villanueva (Wilbraham, Mass.)and Hester clocked a 1:28.61 for third place as Middlebury won the dual with a 1-2 finish in the relay with times of 1:25.91 and 1:27.21.

In the diving well, Springfield took 1-2-3 finishes on both boards. Christian Butler (North Haven, Conn.)recorded NCAA regional qualifying scores with a sweep in both disciplines as he notched a 295.73 on the 3-meter board and a 296.77 on the 1-meter board.

Tyler Khongkham (East Hampton, Conn.) was the runner-up on both boards with a 1-meter score of 233.78 and a 3-meter score of 237.60, while Andrew Testa (North Attleboro, Mass.) took third with a 1-meter score of 201.83 and a 3-meter score of 226.13.

Springfield will travel to Amherst for a dual on Friday at 5:30pm as the Pride have two meets to go before the 2026 NEWMAC Championships.

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