After four events the Denison men's swimming and diving team is in the midst of a three-team race for the top spot.  The Big Red totaled 85 points on the first night and trail only second-place Emory (97pts) and first-place Kenyon (106pts).

The Big Red posted five All-American performances on Wednesday night.  Individually they were led by first-year Al Weik and junior Dan Thurston who placed third and fifth, respectively.  Weik, in his first national final of his career, took third in 4:25.67 to pick up 16 points for Denison.  Thurston followed in fifth place with a time of 4:27.83.

Another DU rookie, Spencer Fronk, would pace the Big Red in the 200 individual medley.  Fronk, who was racing in lane eight, jumped out to the lead in the butterfly and held that lead through the first 100 yards of the race after a 23.59 split in the fly and a 27.55 split in the backstroke.  Fronk would end up touching in fifth place with a time of 1:50.91 and would pick up his first All-America plaque of his career.

Junior Mike Barczak represented Denison in the 50 free and after just missing out on the A-Final in morning preliminaries, he returned with a strong time of 20.62 to place second in the B-Final and 10th overall.  The College of New Jersey's Adam Schneider out-touched Barczak at the wall by two-hundredths of a second.

In the final event of the night the relay team of Robert Barry, Jake Lewing, Kyle Chabot and Barczak posted a time of 1:29.57 in the 200 medley relay.  Barczak and Kenyon's David Somers were blazing over the final 50 yards as Barczak notched a 19.89 anchor split and Somers touched in 19.64.

Denison will return to action on Thursday with preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. followed by finals at 6 p.m.  Prelims and finals can be watched live on ncaa.com.

Complete Results

Day 1 Photo Gallery