The Denison men's swimming & diving team won its seventh-straight North Coast Athletic Conference championship on Saturday night and added two more event championships to its total. This is the eighth conference title for Denison in the 31-year history of the NCAC.
The fourth and final night of competition got going with the 1650 freestyle where first-year Aaron Saccurato won his first NCAC title with a time of 15:40.26 which also bested his previous 'B' cut time by more than 15 seconds. Ben Burdick followed in fourth with a season-best time of 15:55.68 and Stuart Hohm ended in fifth with a time of 16:04.93. Saccurato would go on to be named the NCAC Newcomer of the Year in the postseason awards ceremony. In addition to his win in the mile, Saccurato placed fourth in the 500 free, fifth in the 400 IM and was a part of the second-place 800 free relay.
In the 200 backstroke, four DU swimmers would land in the top-seven paced by runner-up Jack Lindell and his time of 1:48.44. Jason Wesseling was fifth in 1L49.81 and Alec Carlson touched sixth in 1:51.45. Both Wesseling and Carlson logged season-best 'B' cuts in morning prelims with Wesseling finishing in 1:48.51 and Carlson ending in 1:50.72. Max Howes checked in seventh with a time of 1:53.05.
The 100 free saw Kenyon's Austin Campbell complete a sweep of the sprint freestyle events, but Denison's Ryan Fleming was there to take second in 44.80. Last year's champ, Conrad Wuorinen, placed sixth in 45.54 while Franz Kabelka took 13th in 46.89.
The champion of the 200 IM, Joe Brunk, picked up another all-conference certificate with a third-place swim in the 200 breaststroke in 2:03.96. Al Nennig ended in fifth in 2:04.47 and Damon Rosenburg was seventh in 2:05.14.
Kevin Brinegar came out of lane seven to win the 200 fly by hitting the wall in 1:52.01. After a season-best time of 1:51.25 in prelims, Andrew Rich posted a time of 1:52.69 to finish fifth in the final. Timmy Smith was right behind in 1:53.14 to take sixth.
After the 200 fly Denison held a 35.5 lead over second-place heading into the 1-meter dive. That's where Denison's six divers picked up right where they left off on Thursday. Tonight they would occupy positions one through six in the standings led by Connor Dignan's 564.25 points. Ben Lewis (527.30) followed in second and Max Levy (521.45) took third. Fourth through sixth went to Connor Dorff (505.35), Brian Allen (477.65) and Nathan Lightman (463.25). All six divers posted scores that will qualify them for the NCAA Division III diving regionals. In the post-meet awards ceremony, Russ Bertram was named the men's diving coach of the year for the second-straight year and Dignan won Diver of the Year for the second time.
After the 1-meter board, Denison's lead ballooned from 35.5 points to 216 points. IN the last event, the 400 free relay, DU would finish second as Fleming, Wuorinen, Rosenburg and Howes posted a time of 2:59.17.
Through 20 events, the Big Red won eight event titles and racked up 27 top-3 finishes.
