The Denison men made a second-day charge at the 2010 Miami Invitational, finishing in third-place with 1,220.5 points. The only two schools who accumulated more points than the Big Red were second-place, Miami, and first-place Emory. At SUNY-Fredonia, the other half of the DU squad is in second place after two of their three-day meet.
In Oxford, DU posted seven NCAA provisional qualifying times and one automatic qualifying time while chalking up nine, top-nine finishes to close out the meet.
Sophomore Quinn Bartlett (Berwyn, pa./Conestoga) can make his plans for March 23-26 in Knoxville, Tenn. after his 'A' cut time of 1:48.68 in the 200 backstroke.
Senior Jake Lewing (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) placed third in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:05.91 to notch a 'B' cut. First-year Sean Chabot (Washington, Mich./Stoney Creek) matched Lewing's third-place finish in the 200 backstroke with his career best time of 1:52.67. Following Bartlett in the 200 backstroke was Sean Chabot (Washington, Mich./Stoney Creek) in third place and Michael DeSantis (Beverly Hills, Mich./Groves) who placed fifth with a 'B' cut time of 1:53.08.
First-year Al Weik (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Creek) continued his impressive championship format meet debut with a ninth place showing in the 500 freestyle and a time of 4:38.17. The 100 freestyle saw Mike Barczak (Beverly Hills, Mich./Brother Rice) touch in ninth place with a time of 46.88 and rookie Spencer Fronk (Cherry Hills Village, Colo./Cherry Creek) logged a 1:56.05 time in the 200 IM which was good for seventh. Trailing Fronk, in ninth-place, was Bartlett.
In the final race of the night, the 400 freestyle relay, Fronk, Joe Katich (Toledo, Ohio/St. Francis de Sales), Weik and Barczak placed third with a time of 3:06.41 which was just outside of the NCAA provisional qualifying time. DU did post a 'B' cut in the 200 medley relay when DeSantis, Lewing, Edgin and Barczak touched in 1:33.44.
At Fredonia, sophomore diver Gabe Dixson (New Albany, Ohio/New Albany) cleared the NCAA's provisional qualifying score with an 11-dive total of 427.45 in the men's 1-meter dive. That score placed Dixson second overall. Following in 10th place with a score of 354.60 was junior Phil Meyer (River Forest, Ill./Oak Park-River Forest).
Aside from the diving at Fredonia, DU posted 10, top-six finishes. That performance has them in striking distance of first-place Penn St. Behrend. Denison has totaled 363 points through the first two days and PSU-Behrend has accumulated 460.5 points.
Other top finishers for the Big Red in Fredonia included Eric Fischer (Niwot, Colo./Niwot), who placed second in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:51.42. He also led-off the second-place 400 medley relay team with Seth Lemon (Albuquerque, N.M./Bosque School), Kevin Naud (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer), Pat Lombardi (Phoenix, Ariz./Desert Vista) and the runner-up 200 free relay team with Naud, Dave Hallman and Lombardi.
Denison's fifth runner-up finish of the night came from Brandon Hullings (Ewing, N.J./The Pennington School) in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:02.27.
The Big Red will close out the Blue Devil Invitational on Sunday with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m.
