The Big Red men's swimmers locked up a third place finish at the 2009 Miami Invitational and freshman diver Gabe Dixson (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) continued to re-write the record books from the Calvin Invitational in Grand Rapids, Mich.

The swimmers posted a team total of 1,454.5 points and were just 39.5 points behind second-place, Emory University.  The overall team championship went to Division I, Oakland (Mich.) who finished with 1,756 points.   Fourth place was held down by Wright State (1,330) while places five through seven were occupied by Cincinnati, Miami, and Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

On Friday night, Dixson shattered a 31-year old school record with his 11-dive, 466.25 point performance in the one-meter dive.  Tonight, in the men's three-meter dive, Dixson locked up the top spot and broke a 23-year old school record in the process.  Dixson posted a stellar score of 506.80 in the preliminaries and followed that with a score of 499.80 in the finals.  To put those scores into perspective, both would have landed Dixson in fourth place at last year's NCAA Division III Championship.

Aside from Dixson's memorable debut, DU's four divers continued to post strong scores.  Fellow rookie Jared Scheck (Pittsburgh, Pa./Shady Side Academy) placed fourth with a score of 429.55.  Cody Smith (Ardmore, Pa./Haverford) was sixth (416.70) and Phil Meyer (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park and River Forest) was seventh (415.30).

Back in Oxford, Denison landed five NCAA provisional swims and got a third-place performance from Dan Thurston (Ann Arbor, Mich./Huron) in the 500 freestyle.  Thurston was one of four DU swimmers in the top-17.  He posted a time of 4:33.44. He would also return in the 100 freestyle with a fourth-place time of 47.14 seconds.

Sophomore Robert Barry (Richmond, Va./St. Christopher's School) took fourth place in the 200 backstroke while teammate Quinn Bartlett locked up seventh place after swims of 1:52.33 and 1:52.97, respectively.

Another newcomer, flyer Matt Edgin (Columbus, Ohio/Upper Arlington), touched in 51.14 seconds in the 100 butterfly to place fifth.  That was also a 'B' cut time for the Big Red.  He was followed by junior Chris Bagley (West Bloomfield, Mich./Brother Rice), senior Casey Browning (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Grosse Pointe South), Barry, and junior Bernard Chen (Singapore/Anglo Chinese School)  to all landed in the top 17.

While DU had five of the top17 in the 100 fly, they really cleaned up in terms of points in the 200 breaststroke.  Overall, the team racked up 108 points in the event after landing eight swimmers in the top-22.  That list was led by senior Andy Brabson's (Boonsboro, Md./Boonsboro) ninth place finish and his time of 2:10.78.

This was the final meet for the Big Red men's swimmers and divers in 2009.  They will return to the pool on Jan. 15 when they take on NCAC foe, Wittenberg in Springfield, Ohio.