The Denison men's swimmers and divers wrapped up a difficult 24-hours of dual meet opponents on Saturday with a 132-111 loss to conference rival, Kenyon from the Mike Gregory Pool in Granville.
After a pair of losses to Division I opponents, Ohio State and Cleveland State on Friday night, the Big Red returned to the water on Saturday afternoon for their annual clash with the Lords. The team racked up 19, top-3 finishes but it wasn't enough to usurp the defending national champions on this day.
The Big Red were led by sophomore diver Gabe Dixson (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) who set a new school six-dive record in the men's three-meter dive competition. Dixson posted a score of 305.90, besting Cody Smith's (Ardmore, Pa./Haverford) previous school record of 298.00 set in 2009. Dixson also won the one-meter dive with a score of 286.80. He was followed in both events by junior Phil Meyer (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest) who posted a score of 232.75 in the one-meter and 255.35 in the three-meter.
In the swimming events junior Mike Barczak (Beverly Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) posted a third-place finish in the 50 freestyle (21.70) and was a part of the 200 medley relay and the 200 free relays which both finished second.
The distance events saw first-year Al Weik (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest) place second in both the 1000 freestyle and the 500 freestyle. Another freshman, Spencer Fronk (Cherry Hills Village, Colo./Cherry Creek) placed second in the 200 free and took third in the 100 freestyle. The lone victory of the day was recorded by sophomore Quinn Bartlett (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga) in the 100 backstroke. Bartlett posted a time of 52.11 seconds, edging Kenyon veteran Michael Mpitsos by three one-hundredths of a second.
Other tip finishers for Denison included senior co-captains Kyle Chabot (Washington, Mich./Stoney Creek), who placed second in the 100 fly (53.05) and Jake Lewing (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) who took second in the 100 breaststroke (59.91).
The Big Red swimmers will return to action on Dec. 2 when they compete in the three-day Miami Invitational in Oxford, Ohio. The divers will also return to action on Dec. 2 at the Blue Devil Invitational in Fredonia, N.Y.
