VILLANOVA, Pa. – In its first home meet of the year, the Villanova Men's Swimming and Diving team suffered a 156-128 loss to Rider Wednesday evening. 

The Wildcats recorded six event wins courtesy of seniors Charlie Hinckley and Nolan Danus, and sophomores Chris Jones and Gavin Jones.

The highlight of the day was Chris Jones on the platform and Hinckley between the lane lines. Jones started the day for the Wildcats by sweeping the diving portion of the meet. The Linden, Mich native scored 252.98 in 1 meter and 281.63 in 3 meter. In the pool, Hinckley bested the field in the 200 freestyle (1:41.22) and 500 freestyle (4:39.07).

While in the 200 butterfly, Danus finished ahead of the competition by two second tapping the wall at 1:53.43. Securing another freestyle event win, Gavin Jones swam 47.18 to win the 100 freestyle ahead of teammates Mikey Thurk (47.64) and Patrick Hemingway (47.77) in third and fourth, respectfully. With second and third place finishes in the 200 IM, Danus (1:55.39) and Gavin Jones (1:57.12) combined for a total of seven points in the event.

Freshman Justin Nowicki had a solid outing finishing second in both the 1000 freesyle and 200 butterfly. Nowicki tapped the wall at 9:48.47 in the freestyle and finished just behind Danus in the butterfly clocking in at 1:55.72.

Other notable performances came by way of senior Richard Nolan, junior Henry Halloran and freshman Ben Tunila. The trio finished second through fourth in the 200 breaststroke to pick up important points for Villanova. Nolan was the first Wildcat in the race to tap the wall at 2:07.99, followed by Halloran (2:08.03) and Tunila (2:09.51).

Capping off the day, the quartet of Gavin Jones, Thurk, junior Patrick Hemingway, and sophomore Henry Gingrich joined forces in the 200 freestyle relay to finish second and record a time of 1:26.22.

The Villanova men have a quick turnaround as the team heads to Newark, N.J. on Friday November 3 to compete against NJIT.

For all of the latest updates surrounding the program, follow Villanova Swimming and Diving on X, formally known as Twitter, and Instagram @novaswimdive.