Men's Swimming

Edited: March 22, 2010

Meet Results

The NCAC dominance of swimming and diving at the national level continued this past weekend as Kenyon captured its 31st NCAA Division III Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship while Denison finished in second place. On the women’s side, Denison finished second and Kenyon finished fourth. Individuals from Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, Wabash and Wittenberg also represented the conference.

KENYON accounted for nine event titles, five NCAA records, a clean sweep of the relay events and the largest margin of victory ever recorded at the meet. The Lords compiled 696 points to second-place Denison’s 272. The 424-point difference set the new standard, topping Kenyon’s 389-point margin of victory in 1995. Sophomore Zachary Turk (Strongsville, OH/St. Edwards) won six titles and was a part of four NCAA records. Individually, he won the 50 (19.99) and 100 (43.79) freestyles, setting a national record in the 50 prelims (19.75). He was also a part of four winning relays: the 200 medley and the 200, 400 and 800 freestyles. He paired with Ian Stewart-Bates (Moreland Hills, OH/University School), David Somers (North Potomac, MD/Quince Orchard), and Blair Withington (Hastings, New Zealand/Hastings Boys) to establish a new record in the 400 free relay (2:55.56) and with Somers, Michael Mpitsos (Newport, OR/Newport) and Collin Ohning (Greenville, SC/Christ Church Episcopal) for a record in the 200 free relay (1:19.05). Turk combined with Mpitsos, Ohning and Nat Carruthers (Longmont, CO/Shining Mountain) in a record-setting 200 medley relay (1:27.74). The 800-yard relay team of Stewart-Bates, Turk, Blake Preston (New Rochelle, NY/New Rochelle) and Kegan Borland (Vandergrift, PA/St. Joseph) touched first in 6:34.71. Sophomore Ian Bakk (MacFarland, WI/MacFarland) took home the 200 breaststroke title (2:01.14), while David Lazarus (Moens, France/Foundations of International) took the 100 (54.70). The quartet of Mpitsos, Lazarus, Carruthers and Withington touched first in the 400 medley relay (3:15.48).

DENISON logged the program’s seventh, second place finish and the first since 2007. Denison posted a rally on Saturday to take second away from Emory, who held the position for most of the meet. The Big Red came away from the meet with 22 All-Americans as well seven top-4 swims. Sophomore Dan Thurston (Ann Arbor, MI/Huron) placed second in the 400 IM while sophomore Robert Barry (Richmond, VA/St. Christopher’s) took a pair of fourth place finishes in the 100 and 200 backstrokes.

OHIO WESLEYAN came away with one All-American in senior David Gatz (Delaware, Ohio/Hayes). Gatz finished 16th in the 100-yard breaststroke to secure his third straight All-American honor in the event. He closes out his career with five All-America honors. Gatz also took part in the 200-yard breaststroke and finished in 20th place.

Two WABASH swimmers come up just short of competing in the finals. Junior David Birrer (Indianapolis, IN/Brownsburg) finished 19th in the 200 butterfly and missed the finals by less than a second. Junior Evan Rhinesmith (McCordsville, IN/Mt. Vernon) missed the finals of the 100 breaststroke by 12/100ths of a second and ended up taking 17th place.