Denison's men put some distance between themselves and the Kenyon Lords with a scintillating Friday night at the 2016 North Coast Athletic Conference Swimming & Diving Championships. Through 14 of 20 events, Denison leads with 1,392.5 points. Kenyon trails DU by 169 points heading into the final day of swimming in Granville.
The night got kicked off in a big way with a rousing win in the 200 medley relay. Denison trailed early on in the race but an impressive fly split by Andrew Rich combined with a 19.94 50 free by Conrad Wuorinen locked up the victory in 1:29.97. That was a season-best 'A' cut time for the Big Red, setting the tone for what would follow.
In the 400 individual medley, Jack Lindell made some history, becoming the first male to win the 200 IM and 400 IM in the same year since Craig Hummer of Kenyon did it in 1987. Lindell touched first in 3:54.31 while Mitch Williams took third in 4:00.15. In sixth and seventh place, Matt Hedman and Blake Kent finished with times of 4:05.15 and 4:05.41, respectively. Lindell is the ninth conference champ from Denison in the 400 IM and the first since Jackson Humphrey in 2013.
The next event was the 100 butterfly and senior Andrew Rich defended his crown with a meet record time of 48.13. Rich broke Aaron Cole of Denison's NCAC record time of 48.47 which had stood since 1999. Rich is also the first back-to-back champ in the 100 fly since Cole in 1999-2000. Following Rich in the Championship Final was Kenny Fox in fourth (49.04) and Jason Wesseling in ninth (51.61).
The 200 freestyle could prove to be the turning point of the championship as Denison racked up 207 points thanks to eight individuals in the top-13 of the standings. That logjam of red and white equaled a 94-point gain over Kenyon in the team standings.
Leading Denison in the 200 free was Joe Brunk (1:39.21), Ryan Fleming (1:39.55) and Stuart Hohm (1:39.84) who went 2-3-4, respectively. Ryan Stevenson placed sixth in 1:40.27 while Max Howes and Wuorinen went 7-8 in the standings. In the B-Final, Aaron Saccurato won the heat in 1:40.54 while Ben Burdick took 13th overall in 1:41.47.
Another DU champion would be crowned in the 100 backstroke when Wesseling locked up his first individual title with a time of 49.85 marking the Big Red's first win in the event since 2012.
The 1-meter board saw senior Ben Lewis pick up the second individual title of his career, edging teammate and 2016 3-meter champ, Max Levy, by two points. Lewis posted an 11-dive score of 549.45 while Levy finished with a score of 547.45. Lewis nailed his final dive, a reverse 1 ½ somersault twist, with a score of 63.70 with a 2.6 degree of difficulty to lock up the win. In third place for Denison was junior Brian Allen who finished with a score of 466.92.
In the 100 breaststroke, Brendan Howley took fifth and Jake Ball finished sixth with times of 57.30 and 57.39, respectively.
The final event of the night was the 800 free relay and the Big Red capped off a stellar night with victory No. 6. The team of Hohm, Fleming, Stevenson and Brunk combined for a season-best time of 6:37.30. Fleming's 200 split of 1:38.97 led DU in the event. It marked the first 800 free relay win for the Denison men at NCACs since 2012.
Denison will return to the Trumbull Aquatics Center on Saturday for the final day of competition at the 2016 NCAC Championship. Preliminaries will start at 10 a.m. in the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and the 400 free relay in addition to finals of the 1,650 freestyle. Finals will begin at 6:30 p.m.
