Denison's stable of men's divers have gotten the Big Red off to a tremendous start through one event at the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship from the Trumbull Aquatics Center in Granville.  Led by a record-setting performance from junior Connor Dignan, Denison occupied positions 1-6 in the final standings of the men's 3-meter board.

In front of an energetic home crowd, Dignan not only broke the NCAC 11-dive record, but shattered the national record with a score of 645.70.  The previous NCAC record of 568.80 was set by Denison's Gabe Dixson in 2012.  Following in second place was sophomore Ben Lewis who finished with a score of 538.25.

First-year Max Levy followed in third-place, less than 10 points behind his teammate, with an 11-dive total of 528.45.  Brian Allen checked in with a fourth-place showing by totaling a score of 489.70, while classmate Nathan Lightman put up a score of 431.80.  In sixth-place, senior Matt Poulos rounded out Denison's dominating performances by posting a score of 429.25.

Out of Dignan's first 11 dives, he recorded six dives with an individual score greater than 63 points.  He ended his preliminary round with a score of 629.00, and actually improved upon that with three dives of over 76 points.  His best dive of the night was a 3 ½ somersault pike that judges awarded a score of 77.50.  His final dive of the night, a forward 2 ½ somersault 1 twist pike, was given a score of 76.50. 

Denison will return to the pool on Thursday morning at 10 a.m. for preliminaries in the 200 free relay, 500 free, 200 IM, 50 free, 400 medley relay.  Finals will begin on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

Watch Connor Dignan's final three dives on Instagram