The Denison men's swimming & diving returned to the pool after a month-long break from competition by hosting Division I Eastern Michigan. Despite six event wins by the Big Red, Eastern Michigan came away with a 184-116 victory from the Trumbull Aquatics Center.
Denison was led by senior Connor Dignan who placed first in both diving events. Other individual wins went to Damon Rosenburg, Ryan Fleming, Spencer Fronk, and Jackson Humphrey.
Dignan won the 3-meter competition with a six-dive score of 307.95. Teammate Ben Lewis followed in third place with a score of 252.75. In the 1-meter board, Dignan turned in a score of 299.25 which was good enough for the win.
Fronk was the winner in the 100 freestyle after touching in 46.49. He was also the runner-up in the 100 backstroke and swam on two runner-up relays (200 medley and 400 freestyle). Following Fronk in the winner's category against Eastern Michigan was Fleming who was victorious in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.26. Conrad Wuorinen followed in third place in the event with a time of 21.41 seconds.
Rosenburg logged a first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke with his time of 56.97 and returned to place third in the 200 breast in 2:10.55. Humphrey also enjoyed a strong meet. He won the 200 individual medley in 1:55.40 to go along with a second place finish in the 200 backstroke (1:52.92) and a third place showing in the 200 fly (1:54.26).
In the 100 fly, Andrew Rich was the runner-up with a time of 50.63 seconds. Carlos Maciel took third in the 200 free in 1:42.98 and Al Weik placed third in the 1,000 freestyle and fourth in the 500 free with times of 9:43.88 and 4:47.51, respectively.
In addition to taking on the Division I Eagles, Denison also sent half its squad to Springfield, Ohio to take on North Coast Athletic Conference foe Wittenberg. The Big Red defeated the Tigers 188-53 to secure a 1-1 record in their return to competition.
Freshman Cam Clerici paced DU with three event titles on Friday night. Clerici posted victories in both the 50 (22.43) and 100 (49.13) freestyle events. The rookie's third victory came in the final event of the night, the 200 free relay. Clerici along with Patrick Lombardi, Jesse Smith and Ryan Strother combined for a time of 1:30.47.
Also posting multiple victories were Lombardi, Joe Brunk, Sam Strosnider, Nathan Thorne, Cam Young and Max Levy. In addition to his 200 freestyle relay win, Lombardi swam the anchor leg on the winning 200 medley relay. Lombardi, Henry Homans, Brunk and Strosnider finished the race in 1:54.30. Brunk and Strosnider also posted individual titles in the 200 IM (1:58.36) and 200 fly (1:59.20), respectively.
Thorne and Young each picked up a pair of individual victories. Thorne won the 1,000 free after touching in at 9:55.70, and took home the 200 backstroke win with a time of 1:58.98. Young's victories came in the 200 (1:46.29) and 500 (4:56.31) freestyle events.
Levy rounded out the multiple winners with a clean sweep in the diving events. The freshman won the 1-meter board with 316.65 points and followed that up with 343.10 points in the 3-meter dive. Gus Evans logged the final Denison win in the 200 breast with a time of 2:13.50.
