GENEVA, Ohio – Bolstered by a dominant performance across four days of action, George Washington claimed the program's sixth overall and third straight Atlantic 10 Men's Swimming and Diving title, behind 783 points Saturday evening at SPIRE Institute.

The Colonials accounted for six of the seven new league records on the men's side, including both the 200 freestyle and 200 medley relays as well as the 100 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly and 400 IM.

After establishing a slight edge in points on opening day, GW widened the gap between the No. 1 position and the remainder of the field over the next three sessions, pushing to an 111-point lead against second place on Thursday and extending that advantage to 174.5 by Friday. With 783 points through Saturday, the Colonials concluded the meet with a final gap of 275.5, outpacing second-ranked George Mason (507.5) en route to the title.

Massachusetts (458) followed at third while Davidson (456.5) and Fordham (408.5) slid in at fourth and fifth, respectively. St. Bonaventure locked down the No. 6 overall spot behind 357 points while La Salle (278) and Saint Louis (188.5) rounded out the standings at seventh and eighth.

GW served as the primary record-breaking force at the A-10 Championships, snapping the top mark in the following events (in order): 200 medley relay by .09 seconds by the crew of Karol Mlynarczyk, Preston Lin, Djurdje Matic and Ganesh Sivaramakrishnan; 200 freestyle relay by .43 seconds via the efforts of Matthew Whelan, Matic, Dylan Koo and Sivaramakrishnan; 400 individual medley by .07 seconds off the work of Connor Rodgers; the 100 butterfly by .03 seconds via Matic; the 100 freestyle by Matic, who tied the previous best of 43.42; and finally the 200 butterfly by .44 seconds off the efforts of Connor Rodgers, who recovered from a second-place showing in the prelims where St. Bonaventure's Alexander Behr broke the original record for the event.

The lone record not taken by the Colonials fell to Davidson's Dylan Felt, who outpaced the the previous best in the 1,650 freestyle by a total 4.61 seconds. Felt was voted both the A-10 Men's Most Outstanding Pe5rformer and Rookie Performer. UMass junior Tommy Cotner picked up the Men's Most Outstanding Diver honor as well.

George Washington head coach Brian Thomas was named the Men's Coach of the Year while Minutemen diving coach Sam Baluzy earned accolades as the Men's Diving Coach of the Year.

DAY FOUR HIGHLIGHTS

• During the morning preliminaries, only one performance found placement inside the A-10 top five outside of Behr's then-record in the 200 fly: Fordham's Taras Zherebetskyy vaulted to the No. 3 overall spot in the 100 freestyle, posting a 43.97 mark for the event. A later performance from GW's Matic along with Zherebetskyy himself would push this time into a tie for fifth all-time
   
• UMass' Andrew Bell posted a solid prelims showing in 3-meter diving, securing the top spot entering the finals via a 369.60 mark. James Gourlay of Davidson logged second with 307.70 points while Bona's Ben Giera rounded out the top three with 302.95.
   
• The evening finals opened with a memorable finish for Felt, who outpaced the A-10 record in the 1,650 freestyle en route to a gold medal for the Wildcats.
   
• Matic tacked on another first-place finish for GW in the 100 freestyle, tying the previous best for the event behind a 43.42 mark. Additionally, Fordham's Zherebetskyy slid in to third on the league's all-time performance list, posting a 43.79 time for a Rams silver medal.
   
• The men's 200 breaststroke saw a slight shift within the top five performers, as the Colonials' Marek Osina powered to a gold medal off a 1:57.36 time, matching the previous fourth-best mark for the event.
   
• Bona's Alexander Behr initially set the league record in the 200 butterfly during the morning prelims, logging a 1:44.91 time; GW's Connor Rodgers, though, had other plans in the evening finale, as the sophomore submitted a 1:44.47 mark for the gold medal and the new No. 1 placement atop the A-10 performance list. Behr, meanwhile, slides down into the No. 2 position for his earlier showing while his finals finish of 1:45.41 captures the fifth overall spot on the all-time leaderboard.
   
• The men's 3-meter diving concluded with St. Bonaventure's Ben Giera atop the final standings, as a 354.80 score outpaced the prelims leader, Bell (345.25), by less than 10 points. The Minutemen secured the final podium position as Cotner racked up 311.80 points en route to third, narrowly beating out the fourth-place diver by just a quarter of a point.
   
• In final event of the evening, the Fordham 400 freestyle relay squad of Christian Taylor, Alex Wilhelm, Paris Raptis and Zherebetskyy clinched a first-place finish behind a league all-time second-best mark of 2:55.63. The silver and bronze medal crews of George Washington and George Mason, respectively, managed to lock down the fourth and fifth overall placements with their times as well.

For more information, including the final results and recaps of the first three days at SPIRE Institute, visit the 2023 A-10 Swimming & Diving Championships Central.