SPRINGFIELD - Though the margins of victory were different, the outcome was the same as Northampton junior Colin Machat and Amherst Regional sophomore Ciaran Dillon-Davidson each won Western Massachusetts Swimming Championships on Sunday at the Art Linkletter Natatorium at Springfield College.

Machat prevailed by an outstretched hand in the 50-yard freestyle, beating Westfield sophomore Jimmy Stinehart by .12 seconds with a time of 22.45.

"I was just thinking about getting my head down, getting my start good, turn good, moving my arms as fast as I could and just getting the best possible time I could," Machat said.

Machat was the No. 1 seed entering the race at 22.84, but saved his best for when he needed it most.

"I was definitely feeling the pressure before I got up on the block," Machat said. "The other swimmers in the heat, Justin (Stinehart) and Jimmy (Liu) and all of them, they swam to their fullest potential, and I guess I did too."

In addition to taking first place in the 50 free, Machat put together a solid showing in the 100 freestyle, meeting his pre-race seeding by finishing second at 48.23 seconds, which broke a 24-year-old Northampton school record. Jonah Goldsmith held the previous Northampton record in the 100 free with a time of 48.39.

After being .06 away from breaking the record last year at the state tournament, Machat dedicated this season to breaking the mark.

Minnechaug won the meet with 399 points. The Blue Devils finished in fourth place (190) despite only having four swimmers competing.

"Every swim we had was the best time today," Northampton coach Steve Constantine said. "(We) beat our seed times in everything in the relays, outperformed what we expected to, and had a great meet."

Likewise, Dillon-Davidson had a superb meet for the Hurricanes. He overwhelmed his competition in the 500 freestyle, pulling away from the pack while building a sizable lead.

He went on to win by approximately 10 yards with a time of 4:54.30, which beat the next closest contender by nearly nine seconds and marked the first time the sophomore has broken the five-minute mark in high school.

"It felt great. It was my goal to at least go what I was seeded," Dillon-Davidson said. "The 500 I was especially excited about because that was the first time that I've won an individual event at western Mass."

Dillon-Davidson was the No. 1 seed in the 500 and the No. 2 seed in the 100 butterfly, in which he finished second with a time of 54.25.

He fell just short of an upset, finishing .21 seconds behind Palmer junior Aaron Szcepanek.

"I think I'm going to swim that (the 100 fly) again at states, and so hopefully I can do better than today," Dillon-Davidson said.

As a team, Amherst finished right behind Northampton in fifth place (172 points).

"We want to establish a level of consistency," Hurricanes coach Keith McFarland said. "They finished in the top five each of the last four years (at the sectional tournament), and they've been able to maintain that, and they're a young team.

"Most of the relays are made up of freshman and sophomores, so it bodes really well for the next couple of years," he added.

Amherst senior Walter Benson finished fourth (2:12.75) in the 200 individual relay, and Belchertown junior Robert Lewis was fifth (2:13.38).

Holyoke Catholic senior Nathan Lane tied for fourth in the 200 free (1:53.07) and placed fifth (56.46) in the 100 butterfly.

Joel Bierwert followed up his strong diving performance on Friday with a fourth-place finish (23.06) in the 50 free for Northampton, while Amherst freshman Marc Klepacki finished fifth (23.12).

Belchertown senior Nick Burgos finished third in the 100 backstroke (57.41) and fourth (51.05) in the 100 free, while Holyoke Catholic senior David Olczuk placed sixth (1:04.69) in the 100 backstroke.

South Hadley freshman Ryan Maniello finished fifth (5:10.17) in the 500 freestyle, and Northampton junior Reeves Connolly placed sixth (5:11.55).

In the 200 freestyle relay, Northampton (Connolly, Aidan Winn, Bierwert, Machat) finished third with a time of 1:35.37, while Holyoke Catholic (Olczuk, Kyle Murphy, Gary Chirgwin, Lane) placed fifth in 1:37.23.

In the 200 medley relay, Holyoke Catholic (Murphy, Olczuk, Lane, Chirgwin) finished fifth in 1:49.09, while Amherst (Klepacki, Dylan Bannon, Dillon-Davidson, Dominik Doemer) placed sixth in 1:50.38.

In the 400 freestyle relay, Northampton (Connolly, Winn, Bierwert, Machat) was third in 3:28.63, edging out Amherst (Klepacki, Eric Chen, Benson, Dillon-Davidson) which finished fourth in 3:29.69. Belchertown (William Burns, Lewis, Sam Scudere-Weiss, Burgos) was sixth in 3:39.75.

As a team, Holyoke Catholic finished seventh (121.50) and Belchertown placed eighth (117).