The Denison men's swimming and diving team won its fourth consecutive North Coast Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday night after a solid final day that saw DU come away with three individual event titles.
Denison finished with a score of 1665 while Kenyon totaled 1,546 points, resulting in a 119 point differential in favor of the Big Red.
Junior Quinn Bartlett maintained DU's dominance in the backstroke by breaking his own meet record in the 200 back. Bartlett touched in 1:47.63 and was followed closely by Robert Barry who placed second in 1:48.85. Third-place went to Sean Chabot who posted a season-best 'A' cut time in 1:49.16. In seventh place Michael DeSantis touched in 1:54.07 and Matt Montague finished 10th.
One event prior, sophomore Al Weik won the 1650 freestyle for the second-straight year with a time of 15:32.95. Robert Lawley finished in fourth place in 15:47.78 and Dan Thurston trailed in fifth place with a time of 15:58.67.
After the first two events of the night DU held a 248 point lead over the Lords but Kenyon would trim that deficit in the 100 freestyle by taking the top for places in the championship heat. Despite the strong showing from Kenyon, Denison's Spencer Fronk placed fifth (45.49) and Mike Barczak placed sixth (45.58). Carlos Maciel also won the consolation heat to place ninth.
Jackson Humphrey became a conference champion for the first time by tying Kenyon's Joe Pysnik for the title. The pair touched with identical times of 1:50.62. Dan Hellman finished fourth with a season-best 'B' cut time of 1:52.16.
Seth Lemon, Ben Snader and Damon Rosenburg all logged top-10 finishes in the 200 breaststroke with Lemon leading the way with a third-place finish. Snader was fifth and Rosenburg was 10th.
DU closed out the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 free relay thanks to Chabot, Barczak, Bartlett and Fronk's time of 3:01.11.
In the championship awards ceremony, Denison's Gabe Dixson was named the NCAC Diver of the Year for the second time after sweeping both diving competitions. Jason Glorius was named the NCAC Men's Diving Coach of the Year for the second-straight year.
This is the fourth-straight conference title and the fifth overall for Denison. The Big Red won their first title in 1997 and have followed with wins each year since 2009.
