Denison won three of five events on Thursday night and maintained a 109 point lead on second-place Kenyon heading into day three of the 2014 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships from the Trumbull Aquatics Center.
Through six of 20 events, Denison elads with 670 points while Kenyon follows with 561 points. Third-place belongs to DePauw with 313 while Wabash sits in fourth with 240 points.
The Big Red's best swim of the day came in morning preliminaries when senior Carlos Maciel broke his own meet record with a time of 1:49.67 in the 200 individual medley. In the finals, Maciel managed to edge teammate Jackson Humphrey at the wall by the narrowest of margins as Maciel touched in 1:49.71 while Humphrey finished in 1:49.72.
The pair led a group of six DU swimmers that finished in the top-10 in the standings of the 200 IM. Following in seventh place was Tim Smith (1:53.24) while places 8-9-10 went to Jack Lindell (1:53.80), Spencer Fronk (1:54.09), and Joe Brunk (1:53.64), respectively.
Maciel was also part of the winning 200 free relay team that kicked off Thursday night's final session. Joined by Ryan Fleming, Conrad Wuorinen, and Damon Rosenburg, the relay posted a time of 1:21.19, dropping nearly two seconds off their preliminary time. In the relay, Wuorinen's 50-free split of 19.71 from the No. 2 position was the fastest in the field.
Denison's third victory of the night would come from Fleming in the 50 freestyle. Once it again it was a dual between teammates as Fleming held off Wuorinen at the finish. While Wuorinen posted a season-best time of 20.43 in the morning, Fleming's time off 20.45 was good enough to win the final. The win marked the second conference title of the night for Fleming and the second NCAC title of the sophomore's career. In the consolation final, Damon Rosenburg touched in 20.93 to place 11th and Al Nennig checked in 13th in 21.24.
In the 500 freestyle, four DU swimmers scored, led by Conner Downard's fifth-place finish in 4:32.62. PJ Fallon took sixth in 4:33.32 while 2011 champion, Al Weik checked in with an eighth place time of 4:36.44. In the consolation heat, Nathan Thorne finished 14th in 4:41.76.
The final event of the night was the 400 medley relay and the Big Red were runner-up to Kenyon with a time of 3:17.22. That relay was comprised of Humphrey, Roseburg, Andrew Rich, and Wuorinen.
Denison will be back in action tomorrow for preliminaries that begin at 10 a.m. with finals following at 6:30 p.m. Friday's events include the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, the men's 1-meter dive and the 800 freestyle relay.
