RESULTS  I  CHAMPIONSHIP SITE

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Kenyon College Lords used a record-breaking finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay Friday to maintain their third-place position in the overall team standings at the 2018 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championship.

The relay, the last event of Friday's session, saw the Lords take a runner-up finish in a program record time of 6:30.88. Matt Leenhouts, Tim Hagemeister, Reilly Shields and Robert Williams were the four responsible for producing that time, one that topped the previous Kenyon record of 6:31.78 set during the 2011-12 season.

That finish ended Kenyon's night with 243 team points.

With just one day left in the NCAA meet, Denison University, which all but has the trophy in hand, leads the way with 452.5 points. That leaves Kenyon, Emory University and Johns Hopkins University in a tight battle for the runner-up position. Emory currently owns that spot with 250 points, just seven more than Kenyon and just 16 more than John Hopkins, which sits in fourth place with 234 points.



Prior to their fantastic relay finish, it was an usually quiet night in the individual events for the Lords, as they had just three swimmers participate in consolation heats. Two of those three swam in the session-opening 200-yard butterfly in which junior Jon Zimdars won the consolation heat and placed ninth overall with a time of 1:47.56. Not too far off that pace was senior Matthew Cooper, who earned 12th-place by finishing in 1:49.16.

Following the results of that race, the Lords improved their point total to 200 and moved into a tie for second place with Emory.

In the next event, Kenyon sophomore Ben Baturka matched Zimdar's finish by winning the consolation heat and placing ninth overall in the 100-yard backstroke. Baturka clocked in at 48.79. In the championship heat, Sage Ono from Emory took the title and lifted the Eagles back in front of the Lords on the team leaderboard.

Neither Kenyon nor Emory had qualifiers in the next two events, the 100-yard breaststroke and one-meter diving. Denison had three point-getters in the breaststroke and nearly increased its lead by 200 points over the rest of the field. Going into that session-ending 800-yard freestyle relay, Denison had 412.5 points, Emory was second with 220 points and Kenyon was third with 209 points.

Emory maintained its slim lead on Kenyon by taking a fourth-place finish in the relay.

The final day of competition is Saturday with preliminary heats starting at 10 a.m. and championship heats getting underway at 6 p.m.