Powered by Jack Lindell's national record-setting performance in the 200 IM, the Denison men's swimming and diving team are out in front at the 2016 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championship. Through five of 20 events, Denison has totaled 131 points. Kenyon trails with 117.5 points followed by Emory with 105 and Johns Hopkins with 79.
Lindell set off fireworks in the morning session by breaking the Division III record in the 200 IM with a time of 1:46.07. In the final, Lindell trimmed .07 off that time to win his first career event national title. This is the second time a Denison men's swimmer has won the 200 IM and the first time since Denison Hall of Famer Matt Trumbull took the gold in 1999.
Following with a sixth-place finish in the 200 IM was senior Joe Brunk in 1:50.38. That was Brunk's fourth consecutive All-American performance in the event and the 13th A-A swim of his career. In the consolation final, senior Andrew Rich placed 16th in 1:52.44 marking his first All-American certificate in the event and the 11th A-A swim of his career.
In the 3-meter dive, Denison scored 48 unanswered points over the Lords thanks to second, third and fourth place finishes by Ben Lewis, Brian Allen and Max Levy, respectively. Lewis paced Denison with an 11-dive score of 529.55. His best dive of the finals was his first, an inward 1 ½ somersault pike with a 3.0 degree of difficulty that earned him a score of 73.50. This is Lewis' best career finish at nationals on the 3-meter board. He had previously posted a 13th place finish in 2013 and an 8th place finish in 2014.
Allen's third-place finish was also a career-best showing at nationals. He posted a score of 69.00 on his third dive, a back 2 ½ somersault pike with a 3.0 degree of difficulty. This is the third All-American performance of Allen's career.
Levy was the leader in the clubhouse after preliminaries where he posted a score of 565.20. An incomplete dive on his fourth attempt took him out of the running to defend his national championship in the event. Despite the setback, Levy composed himself and posted a score of 63.00 on his final dive to finish fourth in the standings. Levy, Allen and Lewis will return to action on Friday in the 1-meter dive.
The first event final of the meet was the 500 freestyle where Stuart Hohm placed seventh in 4:28.86. That marked a career-best finish for Hohm in the event. He finished ninth in 2015. In the consolation final, Ben Burdick finished third in the heat and 11th overall in 4:31.48. Aaron Saccurato picked up a point with a 16th place finish after touching in 4:34.40. The championship went to Johns Hopkins' Andrew Greenhalgh for the second-straight year in 4:21.83.
In the 50 freestyle consolation, senior sprint freestyler, Ryan Fleming logged his 12th career All-American finish by touching 15th in 20.58. Oliver Smith of Emory was the winner in 19.55 seconds.
The night was wrapped up by the 200 medley relay team of Jason Wesseling, Brendan Howley, Rich and Conrad Wuorinen. They would post a time of 1:29.37 which placed them fifth. Williams College was the winner in 1:27.94.
Denison will return to the Greensboro Aquatic Center on Thursday when they compete in preliminaries and finals in the 200 free relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free and the 400 medley relay. Lindell is the top seed in the 400 IM with an entry time of 3:50.28. Rich is the fourth seed in the 100 fly in 48.13. The Big Red is also stacked in the 200 freestyle where they have seven swimmers ranked in the top-25 entries.
