GETTYSBURG, PA – The Johns Hopkins men's swimming team opened the 2026-27 season with three wins at a Centennial Conference Quad at Gettysburg on Saturday afternoon.  The Blue Jays topped the host Bullets (161-95), Washington College (209-44) and McDaniel (215-40) to sweep what is now the traditional season-opening league meet for the second consecutive year.
 
Johns Hopkins won nine of the 14 contested events, including a pair of relays  and seven of the 12 individual events.  In all, the Blue Jays would grab 24 top-three finishes on the day.
 
The Blue Jays opened and closed the meet with relay victories.  The team of Kai Henrikson-Brandt, Jonathan Wang, Aden Li and Matthew Brailita got the Blue Jays started with a first-place showing in the 200 Medley Relay in 1:32.46, while Alistair Guth, Lukas Funderburk, Nicholas Lee and Michael Ivanov capped the meet by winning the 200 Free Relay in 1:25.23.  In both races, the Blue Jays edged the top team from Gettysburg as the 200 Medley Relay team won by 0.65 seconds, while the Free Relay team was 0.37 seconds ahead of Bullets.
 
Li would add a pair of individual victories to his effort on the 200 Medley Relay team as he touched home in 49.84 in the 100 Back and added a top finish in the 100 Fly in 50.74.
 
Ivanov nearly joined Li with a pair of wins on the day as he was first in the 50 Free (21.16) and second in the 100 Free (47.04).
 
Junior Ken Ning won the most closely-contested individual race of the day as won the 200 Free in 1:42.37, narrowly edging Gettysburg's Toby Winson, who was just behind in 1:42.43.  Larkin Helman (1:43.68) and Guth (1:44.36) helped give the Blue Jays three of the top four finishers in the event.
 
The Blue Jays went 1-2-3 in the 200 Fly with a pair of freshmen – Finn Nelson (1:55.13) and Nicolas Aldana (1:55.41) - leading the way with sophomore Alessandro Pereira (1:57.37) rounding out the trio.
 
Aldana would add a first-place finish in the 500 Free to lead four Blue Jay finishers among the top five.  Aldana's time of 4:43.32 was more than three seconds better than classmate Willy Thurk (4:46.71), who placed second.
 
The final Blue Jay freshman to win an event – Matthew Ko – did so in the final individual race of the day as he touched home in 1:53.47 to win the 200 IM.  Helman was just behind in 1:54.56.
 
Johns Hopkins also got second-place finishes in the 1000 Free (Jack Cornish/9:59.12), the 100 Breast (Wang/58.92) and the 200 Breast (Will Dunlap/2:14.34) to help fuel their sweep of the Bullets, Shoremen and Green Terror.
 
Johns Hopkins will return to action on Saturday, October 31 when the Blue Jays travel to William & Mary to take on the the Tribe (12 pm).