GREENSBORO, N.C. -- The third night of the NCAA Division III Men's Swimming and Diving Championship was a bit quieter than the previous two for the Kenyon College Owls. Friday, the Owls managed to score 57 points, but dropped from second to fifth place as the meet continued to unfold in the Greensboro Aquatic Center.

As the NCAA field heads toward Saturday's finale, Denison University has a firm grip on first place with 298 points. Emory University is second with 250.5 points. University of Chicago (211) is third and New York University (190.5) clings to fourth place, just ahead of Kenyon (183).

In Friday's opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, Kenyon's quartet of Djordje Dragojlovic, Noel Tumbasz, Roman Savage, and Peter Dunson swam in the consolation final and won the heat with a time of 1:27.52. That gave the Owls, who registered a team season-best time in the event, a ninth-place finish.

The drop to the consolation final in that relay also dropped the Owls in the standings. Kenyon, which started the day in second place, was surpassed by Emory, Chicago, and New York at the completion of the relay.

From there, the Owls tried to make up ground and Ethan Manske's 13th-place finish in the 200-yard butterfly pulled Kenyon one point closer to fourth-place New York. Manske, a junior, posted a 1:48.64 in the consolation final and collected his eighth career All-America honor.

In the next race, the 100-yard backstroke, Dragojlovic, also a junior, lined up to defend his 2024 national title. One season ago, he claimed the NCAA crown with a time of 46.90. Friday, he was edged by Carnegie Mellon University's Brayden Morford, who turned in a winning time of 46.61. Dragojlovic clocked in at 47.18, took the runner-up spot, and ran his career total to 18 All-America honors in 18 NCAA events.

Dragojlovic's results continued to inch the Owls closer to the top three in the team standings. At that point, Kenyon was just 1.5 points behind fourth-place New York and only two points behind third-place Chicago.

Over the next two events, Kenyon did not have any qualifiers and began to drift a little farther away from the front-runners. Denison loaded up in the 100-yard breaststroke, with five swimmers scoring points, and pushed its lead over second-place Emory from 23.5 points to 36.5. With the results of one-meter diving, that Denison lead jumped by three more points.

Meanwhile, idle Kenyon was still on the heels of New York and Chicago.

In the final event of the evening, the 800-yard freestyle relay, the Owls registered a ninth-place finish with a time of 6:35.01. The four who accounted for that Kenyon season-best mark were Kirill Sidorko, Manske, Charlie Green, and Savage.

The Owls are still within reach of a trophy finish and they'll get right back to work in tomorrow's final day of the four-day Championship meet.