Men's Swimming
Men's Swimming & Diving: Two more titles move Denison into second at '08 nationals
David Curtis (left) and John Geissinger (right) congratulate each other after placing 1-2 in the 200 freestyle. Curtis and Geissinger also swam on DU's winning 800 free relay team.
Date: March 21, 2008
Location: OXFORD, Ohio
The Big Red capped off Friday's finals with a victory in the 800 free relay and David Curtis (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) defended his crown in the 200 freestyle, helping Denison move into second place at the 2008 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships from Oxford, Ohio.
After 13 events Kenyon College leads the meet with 429 points. The Big Red trails with 246.5 points while Johns Hopkins sits in third with 224 points. Emory University sits a distant fourth with 173 points heading into the final day of competition.
After securing his fifth national title on Thursday night in the 500 freestyle, Curtis racked up No. 6 and No. 7 on Friday. In the 200 freestyle he hit the wall in 1:37.83 to outdistance teammate John Geissinger (Darien, Conn./Lawrenceville School) who touched in 1:38.29. Curtis won last year's 200 free with a time of 1:38.08 and was the top-seeded swimmer entering this year's championship. Geissinger's runner-up finish was an improvement from last year's fifth place finish and his 12th place showing in 2006.
Both Geissinger and Curtis joined forces with Lowell Byers (Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley) and Chris Sellon (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) to capture Denison's third consecutive national championship in the 800 freestyle relay. Behind Curtis' anchor split of 1:37.03 Denison held off second-place Kenyon by just under one second with a time of 6:40.73. It marked the first national title in the career of Sellon while Geissinger's medal count moved to three and Byers' tally advanced to four.
The 100 butterfly saw Byers shave .33 seconds off his top-ranked qualifying time. He swam a 48.57 in the finals which landed him in third place. Kenyon's Matthew Harris won the event with a time of 47.94.
The opening event of day-two resulted in a fifth place finish for Denison's 200 medley relay team. The group that was made up of junior Charlie Grodecki (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier), sophomore John Nemeth (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic), Byers and junior Jon Behnke (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte) finished the race in 1:32.16.
The 400 individual medley saw Sellon qualify for the championship finals after a preliminary swim of 4:00.88. In the final he would place seventh with a time of 4:01.84. In the consolation final Andy Brabson (Boonsboro, Md./Boonsboro) placed 15th, a seven-spot improvement over last season. Freshman Jake Lewing (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) rounded out the event with a 23rd place finish.
The 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke did not have a DU swimmer in the finals but Denison did put together four, top-20 swims spanning both events. In the 100 breast Nemeth touched in 57.42 seconds to place 14th.
Grodecki would return for the 100 backstroke and place 13th while Behnke followed in 17th and Charlie Baldwin placed 19th.
Denison will hit the pool on Saturday at 11 a.m. for morning preliminaries with the finals taking place at 6:30 p.m.