Ephs move into 5th place at NCAAs
OXFORD, OH. -- A full day of top eight finishes allowed the Williams College men's swimming & diving team to jump four spots from ninth place to fifth after the second day of the 2008 NCAA Div. III Men's Swimming & Diving Championships on the campus of Miami of Ohio University.
The Ephs picks up 95 points on the day to move into fifth place with a two-day total of 140, 10 ahead of sixth-place St. Olaf and 33 behind fourth-place Emory University. Keynon College leads the event after the second day.
"We had some great swims in the morning session," Ephs head coach Steve Kuster said. "I don't think we did quite what we wanted to do tonight, but overall is was a solid day."
Williams swimmers set three new school records on the day, all in the morning preliminaries.
The highest Williams finish of the day belong to the Ephs 200 medley relay of Norman Scott, Tyler Bonewell, Alex Wentworth-Ping and Ben Wampler. Third after a morning swim of 1:32.05 -- one of the new school records -- in the preliminaries, the Eph quartet settled for fourth in the championship heat with a time of 1:32.11.
Senior Chris Millen had another top-eight finish when he placed sixth in the 400 IM with a time of 4:01.23. Scott, the defending national champion in the 100 fly, placed seventh in the championship final with a time of 49.36 seconds. He set a new school record in the morning with a time of 49.02. Teammate Wentworth-Ping also picked up points for Williams by placing 12th in the event with a time of 49.89 seconds.
Bonewell kept the points coming when he swam to an eighth-place finish in the 100 breastroke with a time of 56.81 seconds. His morning swim of 56.56 was also a new school record. The Ephs' 800 free relay also had a good night by placing seventh with a time of 6:44.87. That relay consisted of Millen, David Lebovitz, Michael Kirwan and Gary Roberson.
Kirwan also placed 22nd in the 200 free with a time of 1:42.30. Senior Ben Bullitt was 18th in the 100 backstroke with atime of 51.97 seconds.
