The Denison men's swimmers and divers are breathing some rarefied air at the moment.  After claiming two national championships and seven top-12 swims while competing in just three of four events on Friday night, the Big Red have set themselves up for a run at Kenyon College and its streak of 31 consecutive national championships.

Through 14 events, Kenyon leads the field with 362.5 points.  They are followed by Denison with 327.5 points.  Emory trails in third-place with 271.5 points and MIT sits a distant fourth with 161 points.  Thirty-five points is all that separates the Big Red from their rival and Saturday's 3-meter dive, 1650 free, 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast and 400 free relay will determine whether the Big Red can halt the longest streak in the history of collegiate sports.

Trailing by 41 points heading into the night, DU chipped six points off the deficit despite having no entries in the 200 butterfly.  They more than made up for that event by racking up a gaudy 56.5 points in the 1000 backstroke.

Denison junior Robert Barry captured Denison's first individual event national championship since David Curtis in 2009 by touching in 48.39 and breaking his own school record in the process.  It marked the first national title for Barry and the 20th individual national title in Denison men's swimming and diving history.

Following Barry in the championship final was Mike Barczak and Michael DeSantis who touched in fifth and seventh-place, respectively.  Barczak clocked in a 49.48 while DeSantis posted a time of 49.69.  In the consolation heat, Sean Chabot and Quinn Bartlett placed 11th and 12th, respectively.

While totaling 56.5 points in the event, DU gained a critical 40 points on the Lords in the standings.

In the 100 breaststroke, junior Jake Lewing improved upon his 11th place finish a year ago with a time of 55.73 which was good enough for fifth-place.

DU's big night was capped off with the program's fifth 800 freestyle relay national title out of the last six years.  With the history of success Denison has displayed in the event one would expect to see a number of familiar faces.  That wasn't the case as head coach Gregg Parini turned to three freshmen and junior stalwart Dan Thurston to bring home the gold. 

Along with Thurston, who swam third, first-year Carlos Maciel led things off, followed by Spencer Fronk, and finally Al Weik in the anchor spot.  Thurston's 200-yard split of 1:38.26 combined with Weik's 1:37.76 held off second-place Amherst and third-place Kenyon.  Denison's winning time was 6:34.50.  The Big Red earned 40 points for the relay win and gained another eight points on the Lords in the process.

The dramatic finish to the 2011 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships will begin with preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals at 6 p.m.  Watch the prelims and the finals live on ncaa.com

Complete Results