INDIANAPOLIS, IN – In the lone championship final the Eph men swimmers were in on the third night of competition at the NCAA Championships, the 800 freestyle relay, Williams came in 7th in a time of 6:42.66. The Eph 800 freestyle quartet consisted of Christian Gronbeck, Paul Dyrkacz, Chris Weihs, and Tom Vieth
First year Thad Ricotta seeded 14th in the 200 butterfly improved his seeding placement with a 12th in the morning (1:51.19) and earned a berth in the consolation finals. In his night swim Ricotta continued to show his poise and confidence, taking third in the consolation finals with a time of 1:50.70, shaving .49 off his morning time.
Stuart Horgan's 1:53.54 was not fast enough to get him a spot in the night 200 butterfly competition and placed him 23rd in the morning.
Phil Treesh competing in the 100 backstroke moved up from 33rd to 29th after the morning swims, but his 51.73 did not earn him an evening swim.
In the 100 breaststroke senior Greg McElroy entered the morning qualifiers with the 29th fastest time and he chopped .46 off his seed time to finish in 57.25, resulting in a jump of 10 spots to finish in 19th. Junior Daeus Jorento finished in 29th place with a time of 57.82
With one more day of competition remaining the Ephs are in 8th place with 142 points. Denison holds a commanding lead over the field with 471 points.
Comments from head coach Steve Kuster:
"I thought our morning swims were pretty good and it was great to see two freshman [Chris Gronbeck and Chris Weihs] get All-American honors in the 800 free relay. The relay went about a second faster than they did at NESCACs, which is always good to see.
Thad Ricotta had a good day, getting into his third night of swims and going faster tonight than he did in the morning.
I was happy to see Greg McElroy finish out his career by going about a half a second faster than his previous best.
I'm hoping that tomorrow we can get the job done in the morning and get some guys into the night swims and finish strong."
