RESULTS  I  CHAMPIONSHIP SITE

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Kenyon College Lords had a couple of strong individual-event performances during Thursday's session of the 2018 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship. Those results, however, weren't enough to move the needle for the Lords, who remained in third place at the halfway point of the four-day national meet.

Denison University claimed two event wins and remained in first place, improving its point total to 325.5. Emory University won both relay events Thursday night and also stayed ahead of Kenyon, finishing the evening in second place with 200 points. Kenyon holds third place with 186 points, while Johns Hopkins University sits fourth with 166 points.

Freshman David Fitch turned in the Lords' top showing of the night. He placed fourth in the 100-yard butterfly with a personal-best time of 48.34, edging his previous best of 48.49. In the same event, junior Jon Zimdars won the consolation finals, placing ninth overall with a time of 48.66. At the time, those Kenyon finishes were enough to boost the Lords into second place in the overall team standings.

One event before the 100-yard butterfly, Kenyon sophomore Colin Reardon claimed a seventh-place finish in the 400-yard individual medley. After placing 10th in the event at last year's championship, Reardon clocked in at 3:58.84 Thursday and claimed his second career All-America award. Mick Bartholomew, also a sophomore, took 10th place in the consolation heat and junior Brooks McCoy placed 14th. Bartholomew stopped the clock at 3:55.99 and McCoy finished in 3:58.74.



Kenyon got another chunk of points in the 200-yard freestyle race and maintained its second-place position in the standings. All of Lords' points in that race were collected in the consolation heat, where senior Matt Leenhouts led the way by taking 10th place with a time of 1:38.59. Junior Robert Williams claimed 11th place (1:38.89), freshman Tim Hagemeister locked up 12th (1:39.17) and sophomore Reilly Shields finished in 16th place (1:40.62).

The Lords, traditionally strong in relays, found them to be a bit of a struggle Thursday. They opened the meet with a fifth-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay and closed the meet with a ninth-place finish in the 400-yard medley relay. The team's inability to get that 400 medley relay team into the championship final made way for Emory to regain second place, relegating Kenyon back to third.

Kenyon's fifth-place 200 free relay team, which clocked in at 1:20.94 consisted of Shields, Tommy Weiss, Matthew Cooper and Fitch. The 400 medley relay team, which finished in 3:16.41, was made up of Ben Baturka, Alexander Law, Fitch and Cooper.