Denison takes big lead into final day

Denison left the natatorium in Indianapolis on Thursday night leading Kenyon College by three points after a scintillating 400 medley relay victory.  Denison’s roll continued on Friday night and thanks to a dominating performance in the 100 backstroke and 34 unanswered points in the 1-meter dive, DU enters the final day of the 2012 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championship with a 112-point lead on the Lords of Kenyon.

Through 15 events Denison has 471 points and Kenyon has 359 points.  Emory is third with 287 points.

2012 DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIPS
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Day 1 Results
Full Day 1 Replay: Men  Women

Last year, the 100 backstroke set the stage for Denison’s Saturday charge to a national championship.  This year’s performance did more than set

his 100 backstroke lead-off in the 400 medley relay in 47.56. Friday, he touched in 47.76 for the win. That marked the third event national title in Barry’s career.

Following in third place was sophomore Sean Chabot in 48.86 seconds.  He held off teammate Quinn Bartlett by one one-hundredth of a second.  Fifth place was occupied by senior Mike Barczak and 14th went to Michael DeSantis.

The good times continued for Denison in the night’s final event, the 800 freestyle relay.  For the sixth time out of the last seven years, the event title went to the Big Red as Sean Chabot, Carlos Maciel, Spencer Fronk and Al Weik broke the national record of 6:32.91 set by Denison’s 2009 team.  The relay featured extremely consistent swims from all four members.  The closer was Weik who covered his 200 yards in 1:37.20, locking up the win by more than a second.  Denison’s record time of 6:30.40 was more than five seconds faster than the third-place time.

Just prior to the 800 free relay, Denison’s Gabe Dixson and Connor Dignan placed second and fourth respectively in the 1-meter dive. Last year Dixson placed fourth so his score of 506.30 was a 75 point improvement over 2011. In his final dive, Dixson posted a score of 67.60 which temporarily lifted him into first place. On the final dive of the competition, Johann Schmidt of Tufts posted an identical score of 67.60 to move past Dixson and into first-place. Dignan ended with a total of 484.30. Earlier in the morning senior Phil Meyer placed 13th in 422.15.  In the event, Denison gained another 36 unanswered points.

To open the night, Jackson Humphrey and Daniel Helman set the tone with top-five finishes in the 200 butterfly. Humphrey placed third with a school-record time of 1:49.14 and Hellman checked in fifth in 1:50.03.

Damon Rosenburg rounded out the scoring on Friday with a 10th place showing in the 100 breaststroke. His time of 56.31 picked up seven points for DU.