The Denison men pulled away from the field at the Miami Invitational after dominating the second day from start to finish. The Big Red's depth was on full display. In eight events, Denison landed 38 top-20 finishes. Overall, DU has accumulated 1,365 points. Southern Illinois sits in second place with 816 points while Emory trails in third place with 794 points. Host Miami is holding down fourth place with 595 points.
Sophomore Jackson Humphrey had a big day. In the preliminaries of the 200 butterfly he set a new school record and posted an NCAA automatic qualifying time, touching in 1:49.46. He followed that up with a third place finish in the finals and a time of 1:49.67. Later in the night Humphrey would post Denison's third win of the night in the 400 individual medley. His time of 3:57.62 was also an 'A' cut.
Following Humphrey in the 400 IM with 'B' cuts was Dan Thurston, Al Weik and Matt Montague. Weik's prelim time of 3:58.79 was just shy of an automatic time.
In the 200 fly, DU would place six swimmers in the top-20 and behind Humphrey, Dan Hellman placed eighth in 1:52.67 for a 'B' cut.
Luckily for Denison it appears as if the two top backstrokers in all of NCAA Division III compete against each other every day in practice. In the 100 backstroke Quinn Bartlett and Robert Barry would tie for first place with identical times of 48.51 seconds. Following in fourth place with an 'A' cut was senior Mike Barczak who touched in 49.02 in prelims. The Big Red would also get provisional times from Sean Chabot, Michael DeSantis and Spencer Fronk in the event.
Two events prior, Chabot locked up Denison's first event title with an automatic qualifying time of 1:38.80. Carlos Maciel, Fronk, Bartlett and Thurston followed in third, fourth, sixth and ninth, respectively and all notched 'B' cuts in the event.
The 100 breaststroke saw two newcomers likely punch their ticket to Indianapolis with fourth and fifth place finishes. Damon Rosenburg checked in with a 57.07 time in prelims while Ben Snader touched in 56.52 in the morning qualifier.
In the 50 free, Barczak came in fourth with a time of 20.84 while Bartlett checked in seventh with 20.93.
In the final event of the night, the 400 medley relay, Barry, Rosenburg, Fronk and Barczak teamed up for the victory and an 'A' cut by touching in 3:17.98.
In all, DU posted 24 NCAA qualifying times on Friday night with seven of those times being 'A' cuts. The Big Red will close out the Miami Invitational on Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 9 a.m. followed by finals at 6 p.m. from the Corwin Nixon Natatorium.
