New York, N.Y. – First-year Achillaes Scaperdas captured the 200-yard freestyle to lead the Stevens Institute of Technology men's swimming team to a second-place finish at the NYU Invitational, hosted by New York University, Friday and Saturday.
 
The Ducks totaled 287.5 points to finish second among five teams. Host NYU won the meet with 567.5 points, while Drew University finished third with 227. The College of New Jersey (26) and Brooklyn College (10) rounded out the standings.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Scaperdas highlighted Saturday's competition with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle, touching the wall in 1:44.23. Ron Gvishi finished just behind him in second with a time of 1:44.32, while Jonah Briggs placed fourth in 1:44.46 to give Stevens three of the top four finishers in the event. Sebastien Nappi added a ninth-place finish in 1:47.74. Ethan Emerton recorded a pair of runner-up finishes, taking second in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:10.24 before finishing second in the 200-yard backstroke in 1:53.63. Rahul Shahani placed fifth in the 400 IM with a time of 4:11.43, while Will Hyde finished 11th in 4:23.09.
 
Gvishi added a third-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle, clocking a 47.32. Briggs was sixth in 47.59, followed by Scaperdas in eighth (47.92) and Nappi in ninth (48.08).
Cooper Moffatt turned in a pair of strong individual performances, finishing fourth in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 54.77 before taking fifth in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:09.82. Andrew Thau added a sixth-place finish in the 200 backstroke, touching in 2:03.66.
Shahani also placed fifth in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:58.29, while Patrick Cortelli finished ninth in 2:03.37. In the 100-yard butterfly, Luke Albino paced the Ducks with a seventh-place finish in 53.90. Aaron Zhao (54.71) and Eli Reinhold (54.80) followed in eighth and ninth, respectively.
 
Ryan Bailey led Stevens in the 100-yard breaststroke, placing eighth in 1:00.20, while Jason Scheckner followed in ninth with a time of 1:00.76. Bailey also finished ninth in the 200 breaststroke in 2:13.98, while Jacoby Corn placed 11th in 2:15.86. The Ducks also turned in several strong relay performances. The quartet of Scaperdas, Shahani, Moffatt and Briggs finished second in the 800-yard freestyle relay with a time of 7:04.13. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Gvishi, Nappi, Scaperdas and Briggs combined for a second-place finish in 3:11.04. The 200-yard medley relay team of Sean Perez, Scheckner, Moffatt and Gvishi finished third in 1:36.30.
 
UP NEXT
The Ducks return to action on Saturday, hosting Montclair State University at noon.