Dragojlovic decimates Owls’ oldest record

11/21/2025 8:45:00 PM

GAMBIER, Ohio -- For the second time in two days, Kenyon College senior Djordje Dragojlovic claimed the spotlight at the Total Performance Invitational. Friday night, the stellar sprinter took down the oldest record in the Kenyon books and helped keep the Owls men's swimming and diving team atop the Invitational's seven-team leaderboard.

One day after setting pool and meet records in the 50-yard freestyle, Dragojlovic whipped through Friday evening's 200-yard freestyle in 1:36:00, which eclipsed the pool, meet, and Kenyon records. The previous Kenyon record was 1:36.63 and was set by Dennis Mulvihill back in the spring of 1988. The previous pool and meet records were both 1:36.27, set 10 years ago by Eric Schultz from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dragojlovic's time cleared the NCAA 'B' cut by more than three seconds and was almost three seconds faster than Friday's second-place swimmer, teammate Teo Jaworski, who clocked in 1:38.61, which also cleared the 'B' cut. Additionally, Pedro Mello made it to the finals heat in the same event and posted a seventh-place time of 1:41.13.

Those results, as well as the other Owl outputs, kept Kenyon at the top of the Invitational leaderboard. With two days of swimming down and one to go, Kenyon has 1,173 team points. Carnegie Mellon University made a charge, winning five Friday events and moving into second place with 1,049.5 points. West Chester University (844) is in third place and Case Western Reserve University (695.5) is in fourth.

Dragojlovic's win was Kenyon's only event victory of the evening, but the Owls did have a plethora of top-10 championship heat finishes, including a handful of runner-up finishes.

In the 400-yard individual medley, senior Ethan Manske turned in a runner-up time of 3:56.70, which cleared the NCAA 'B' cut and went down as the second fastest time in NCAA Division III so far this season.

Three Kenyon swimmers racked up points in the championship final of the 100-yard butterfly. Roman Savage, a junior, led the way with a 'B' cut and second-place time of 47.86, Neil Abrahamson was fifth in 49.48, and Thomson Parlette took 10th in 50.17.

In the 100-yard breaststroke it was junior Noel Tumbasz who clocked in at 54.86 and claimed fourth place, as well as notched another 'B' cut for Kenyon. One event later, three more Owls registered top-10 finishes in the 100-yard backstroke. Junior Peter Dunson was the fastest of the three, taking third place in 49.40. Kristof Szappanos was fifth in 50.49 and Parlette was eighth with a time of 51.12.

In relay events, Kenyon notched second-place showings in both the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay. The medley foursome, which consisted of Dunson, Tumbasz, Savage, and Spencer Stluka, clocked in at 1:27.31, the second fastest result in NCAA Division III. The distance relay saw Savage, Dragojlovic, Jaworski, and Manske combine for a time of 6:34.24, the current fastest time in Division III.

While the swimming events were going on, two Kenyon divers, Chase Smith and James Lackner were in Indianapolis, competing in the House of Champions Invitational. Smith placed seventh out of 22 divers competing on the 3-meter board. He scored 294.65 points. Lackner, who tallied a final score of 207.15, finished 21st

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