Men's Swimming
Men's Swimming & Diving: Denison Jumps Out to First Day Lead at NCAC Championships
The Denison men have gotten off to an excellent start at the 2008 NCAC Swimming & Diving Championships. They lead Kenyon by 105 points after the first of three nights of competition in Canton, Ohio.
Date: February 14, 2008
Location: CANTON, Ohio
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The Big Red men's swimmers and divers won three of six events on Thursday night at the 2008 North Coast Athletic Conference Championships and they locked up 12, top-five finishes and now find themselves in first place by 105 points heading into Friday's second day of competition.
Denison finished the night with 557 points while second-place Kenyon checked in with 452 points. The Big Red's night got off to an excellent start as they claimed championships in each of the meet's first two events. In the 200 free relay the team of Rory Scott (Street, Md./North Harford), Lowell Byers (Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley), Jon Behnke (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte) and John Geissinger (Darien, Conn./Lawrenceville School) racked up Denison's fourth consecutive conference championship in the event with an NCAA automatic qualifying time of 1:22.32. Kenyon followed with a time of 1:23.08.
In the following event junior David Curtis (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) made it back-to-back titles in the 500 freestyle when he notched an "A" cut time of 4:33.38. Curtis had plenty of company at the top of the leaderboard in the 500 free as five Big Red swimmers placed in the top-11. Ben Terry (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Twp.) was the next best finisher as he touched third with a time of 4:37.54. Senior Wes Bubb (DeKalb, Ill./DeKalb) was fourth in 4:37.83. Both times were NCAA provisional qualifying times. Rounding out the 118-point event for the Big Red was Casey Browning (Grosse Pointe Farms, Mich./Grosse Pointe South) and Andy Catlin (Owego, N.Y./Owego) who placed 10th and 11th, respectively.
Denison's third championship of the opening day would come from senior diver Stephen Julka (Madison, Wis./Memorial) who made it three consecutive one-meter conference championships after his score of 425.30 edged Allegheny's Jayson Loeffert by 3.05 points. Following Julka was junior Russ Bornschein (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) who placed third with 403.10 points and freshman Cody Smith (Ardmore, Pa./Haverford) turned in a fifth place performance in his first conference championship by scoring 370.25 points. The victory was not only Julka's third one-meter title, it marked his fifth NCAC title overall since 2005.
Despite not coming away with championships in the 200 individual medley adn the 50 freestyle Denison's performance in these two events played a major role in their lead over Kenyon. Junior Chris Sellon (Lawrence, Kan./Free State) took bronze in the 200 IM with a time of 1:54.26 and John Nemeth (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) placed sixth in 1:55.75. Jake Lewing (Yardley, Pa./Pennsbury), Andy Brabson (Boonsboro, Md./Boonsboro), Andrew Krawchyk (Chapel Hill, N.C./East Chapel Hill) and Ed Kowal (Huntington, W.Va./Cabell Midland) placed ninth, 10th, 11th and 14th, respectively to add 110 points to Denison's total.
In the 50 free Byers came up just shy of what would have been his ninth career NCAC title. Byers settled for second-place, finishing behind last year's NCAC Swimmer of the Year, Josh Mitchell, with a time of 21.01. Behnke trailed Byers in 21.22 and Geissinger came in fifth with a 21.31 second performance. Scott and Matt Wright (Cincinnati, Ohio/St. Xavier) placed eighth and 11th, respectivley for DU in the 50 freestyle.
The final event of the night was the 400 medley relay and the team of Behnke, Nemeth, Byers and Geissinger placed second in 3:26.05.
Denison will continue their quest for their second NCAC Championship and first since 1997 on Friday with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. and the finals scheduled to take place at 6:30 p.m.