GAMBIER – It may seem like winter, but at the pool, the Owls were red hot. The Kenyon College men’s swimming and diving team put on a show on the final day of the three-day, seven-team Total Performance Swim Camps Invitational. The Owls racked up five first-place finishes and six second-place spots across the seven events, bringing their three-day total to a whopping 2,581 points to run away with first place.
NCAA Division II West Chester University finished second over the Invitational with a score of 1,448.5, while Carnegie Mellon University finished close behind in third with 1,352 points. The rest of the field finished as follows: Hope College in fourth (849.5), NAIA Milligan University in fifth (761.5), SUNY Geneseo in sixth (700.5), and John Carroll University in seventh (621).
The Owls opened the evening with a second-place finish in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Colin Bowling led Kenyon, who also finished fourth through seventh, with a time of 15:50.38. In the process, the senior cleared an NCAA ‘B’ cut.
Kenyon controlled the next event, the 200-yard backstroke, and finished 1-2-3. Yurii Kosian, a junior, paced the field with a 1:43.38 mark, setting a new top time at the Division III level this season and clearing an NCAA ‘A’ cut. Meanwhile, senior Spencer Pruett (1:46.24) and first-year Ethan Manske (1:47.87) each notched ‘B’ cuts with their second- and third-place finishes.
First-year Djordje Dragojlovic made it back-to-back wins for the Owls with a first-place finish in the 100-yard freestyle. His time of 44.06 set a new DIII season high and surpassed the ‘B’ cut threshold. Junior Daniel Brooks (44.78) and sophomore Nathaniel Wenzel (44.80) finished neck-and-neck in third and fourth, and both swimmers earned ‘B’ cuts.
Luis Weekes missed out on being the third consecutive Owl to pick up a win in the 200-yard breaststroke by 0.18 seconds. The senior finished second in the event with a time of 2:00.00, clearing the ‘B’ cut bar.
The Owls got right back on track in the 200-yard butterfly, going 1-2-3 once again. Marko Krtinic finished in the top spot, putting a 1:48.23 on the board, good for the new high-water mark in DIII this season. Fellow junior Noah Hargrove finished second at 1:48.69, while Kaan Orhan, a first-year, slotted into third with a 1:48.94. All three swimmers earned ‘B’ cuts for their efforts.
The hosts closed out the TPSC in style, finishing first and second in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Kenyon quartet of Krtinic, Dragojlovic, Cheran De Silva, and Wenzel clocked a 2:58.03 in first, while the squad of Kosian, Brooks, Mart Niehoff, and Liam Sweeney finished second with a time of 2:59.05. Both times were good for a ‘B’ cut and sit atop the DIII standings for the season’s fastest time.
Between the morning prelims and evening finals, an Owls diving duo took flight in the James A. Steen Aquatic Center. After going 1-2-3 in the three-meter competition yesterday, Kenyon finished first and second from one meter up today. Senior Drew Albrecht led the way with a score of 455.29, while fellow senior Mason Fishell finished second with 423.15 points.
