Through four of 20 events at the 2015 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship the Denison men sit in fourth place with 60 team points. Kenyon College leads the field with 109 points while Emory sits second with 88, followed by Williams College with 66 points.
After morning prelims, the Big Red sent five individuals into Wednesday's championship and consolation finals. Sophomore Jack Lindell provided the top moment of the night when he broke Carolos Maciel's Denison record with a time of 1:48.31 to finish seventh in the 200 individual medley. Lindell's finish marked an eight-spot improvement over last year's 15th place showing.
In the consolation final of the 200 IM, Joe Brunk would finish 11th in 1:50.04 while Andrew Rich touched in 1:50.89 to come in 13th. Lindell, Brunk and Rich would combine to score 22 points for Denison in the event. This marked the 9th All-American swim for Brunk and the seventh for Rich.
DU's other championship final competitor on Wednesday night was junior Ryan Fleming in the 50 freestyle. He trimmed 0.32 seconds off his entry time in morning trials and that had him seeded fourth entering the championship final. Fleming would finish the sprint in 20.36 to take home eighth place. That marks his second-straight All-American performance in the 50 free and his sixth A-A swim of his career.
In the opening race of the night, first-year Stuart Hohm became an All-American after winning the consolation final of the 500 freestyle in 4:26.66. Hohm dropped 2.65 seconds off his prelim time to finish ninth overall. The national title went to Johns Hopkins' Andrew Greenhalgh who broke Denison great Al Weik's national record with a time of 4:20.60.
The night was wrapped up by a consolation heat victory in the 200 medley relay. The team of Conrad Wuorinen, Damon Rosenburg, Rich and Fleming posted a time of 1:29.45, a 1.02 second improvement over their prelim time. Had they cracked the top eight in the morning, their time in finals would have placed them fifth overall.
Despite the four-point swing in the relay, DU still earned 24 points toward its cause as they head into Thursday's preliminaries and finals where they will compete in the 200 free relay, the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, the 1-meter dive and the 400 medley relay. Trials will begin at 11 a.m. EST with finals commencing at 7 p.m. EST.
