Men's Swimming
Men's Swimming & Diving: Denison finishes third at 2008 D-III Championships
Lowell Byers swam the final event of his storied Denison career on Saturday night. Byers leaves Denison with 24, top-seven swims at nationals since 2005.
Date: March 22, 2008
Location: OXFORD, Ohio
The Big Red men's swimming and diving team closed out the 2008 NCAA Division III Championships with 314.5 team points which landed them in third place behind only Johns Hopkins and Kenyon.
The Lords ran away with their 29th consecutive national championship by accumulating 635 points over the course of the three-day meet. Denison entered the final night in second place but Johns Hopkins utilized five, top-eight finishes on Saturday to lock up the runner-up trophy with 330 points. Emory followed Denison in fourth place with 261 points and Williams trailed in fifth with 211 points.
Denison's top finish on Saturday came in the night's final event, the 400 freestyle relay. DU entered the race after posting the top preliminary time at 3:00.26. The team of Lowell Byers (Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley), David Curtis (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer), Jon Behnke (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte) and John Geissinger (Darien, Conn./Lawrenceville School) put together a time of 2:59.40 which trailed only Kenyon College who touched in 2:58.80. Kenyon's Josh Mitchell swam an anchor leg split of 43.23 which bested only Geissinger's split time of 43.74. John's Hopkins placed third in 3:00.64.
Earlier in the night Geissinger continued his outstanding national meet with a third place swim in the 100 freestyle. Geissinger hit the wall with a time of 44.81 which landed him the bronze. Kenyon's Mitchell won the race with a time of 44.37 and would close out the meet with six national titles to earn NCAA Division III Swimmer of the Year honors.
Senior Wes Bubb (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb) started off the night with a fifth place finish in the men's 1650 freestyle. Bubb, who was competing in his fourth consecutive national meet, made it four consecutive top-seven finishes in the mile at nationals. His time of 15:42.86 was just short of his best showing of 15:39.09 set in 2006.
Another senior would close out a stellar career on Saturday night for Denison. Diver Stephen Julka (Madison, Wis./Memorial) reached the consolation of the men's three-meter dive competition and placed 15th overall with 390.40 points in six dives. Julka won the consolation heat in Thursday night's one-meter springboard and set a new Denison six-dive record in the event. This was Julka's second national meet of his career.
The turning point of the night in the team scoring race came in the 200 breaststroke where Johns Hopkins utilized fifth and sixth place finishes to take second place away from the Big Red. DU got a 16th place finish by John Nemeth (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) and 22nd and 23rd place showings by Andy Brabson (Boonsboro, Md./Boonsboro) and Chris Sellon (Lawrence, Kan./Free State), respectively but the point swing would be enough to put Johns Hopkins up for good.
Rounding out Denison's performances on Saturday was Charlie Baldwin, Charlie Grodecki (Winnetka, Ill./New Trier) and Jake Lewing (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury) in the 200 backstroke. Baldwin led the bunch with a 17th place finish and a time of 1:53.35. Grodecki followed in 24th place and Lewing placed 28th.
Aside from Bubb and Julka, Denison's Byers closed out his storied career at Denison with his runner-up finish in the 400 free relay. Byers posted five, top-five finishes at this year's championship and leaves Denison with 12 career top-three finishes at nationals highlighted by four national titles in the 800 free relay (2006, 07, 08) and the 400 free relay (2007).
The Big Red finished nationals with 15 individual All-American performances and placed no worse than fifth in the five relays.