After the Big Red pulled out to a 154 point lead over Kenyon on Thursday, the Lords continued a slow climb back into contention on Friday night at the 2011 North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships from Canton, Ohio.

After the 100 breaststroke, Kenyon found themselves with their first lead of the championship but thanks to a gang of seven Big Red swimmers in the backstroke event, that KC lead would be very short-lived.  After two of three days, Denison has totaled 1,171 points while Kenyon has amassed 1,049 points giving DU a 122 point lead heading into Saturday.

While the Big Red tallied three wins on the night, the 100 backstroke was the turning point of the evening for Gregg Parini's squad.  Junior Robert Barry defended his title successfully and won the event for the third time in his career with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 49.36.  That time topped his 'A' cut split in Thursday's 400 medley relay.  Following Barry were DU swimmers in second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and 11th place.  Mike Barczak was the runner-up in 50.06 which was an 'A' cut.  Michael DeSantis took fourth in 50.70 while Quinn Bartlett was fifth (50.96).  Kyle and Sean Chabot took fifth and sixth, respectively and Matt Edgin placed 11th.  Denison's six swimmers in the top-7 all had either 'A' or 'B' cuts.  After the dust settled, Denison had scored 174 points in the event and had gained 93 points on their rivals from Gambier.

Following the near clean-sweep in the backstroke, Denison's momentum carried over to the 800 free relay where Spencer Fronk swam an impressive 1:40.66 anchor split to pull off the comeback victory over the final 50 yards.  The relay was comprised of Dan Thurston, Al Weik, Brad Ratliff and Fronk.  Their time of 6:46.61 was a 'B' cut.  It also marked Denison's third-straight 800 free relay title at the conference championship.

Another DU swimmer who won his third consecutive event title was Thurston in the 400 individual medley.  The junior posted a prelim time of 3:58.21 and came back with a 3:58.89 in the finals.  Checking in sixth was Jackson Humphrey in 4:04.64 and Ratliff won the B-final with a time of 4:07.11.  Humphrey and Ratliff's times were both provisional qualifying marks.

In the first event of the night, the 200 medley relay, Barry, Jake Lewing, Kyle Chabot and Barczak were touched out by 12 hundredths of a second by Kenyon.  DU totaled a time of 1:31.39 and Barczak posted a 20.11 'A' cut split while anchoring the freestyle leg.

Lewing came back in the 100 breaststroke for a runner-up finish, and a 'B' cut time of 56.99.  Andrew Krawchyk followed in fifth place with 57.57.  Wabash College's Evan Rhinesmith won the event, marking the first NCAC swimming & diving title in Little Giant history.

Another 'A' cut was posted by Fronk in the 200 freestyle when he touched in 1:39.69.  His classmate, Weik, trailed in third place in 1:41.38 while Joe Katich took fifth (1:43.42) and Merritt Boardman placed eighth in 1:44.81.

Denison will return to C.T. Branin Natatorium on Saturday morning for preliminaries that will begin at 10 a.m.