Kenyon Continues Its Dominance

HOUSTON--It's been 27 years since Kenyon College last lost a Division III swimming and diving championship, and after day one, it doesn't look like they're going to give up their crown lightly.

Kenyon finished the first day holding a 29-point lead over Emory University. Kenyon finished in the top three in four events, including a first-place finish in the 500-yard freestyle by sophomore swimmer Eric Dunn.

"(Dunn) is a big meet swimmer, and he has had a difficult year in training. He had a knee injury and was out most of Christmas, and he had to fight back and the last 40 days gave him a challenge," said James Steen, Kenyon head swimming coach. "He was pretty down about a month ago-and-a-half ago, and we told him to put as much work in the next 40 days and you might surprise yourself. He was eighth, last year, in the 500, so it was a good improvement. He's just a talented kid."

John Hopkins University captured the 400-yard medley relay. John Hopkins jumped out on an early lead with freshman John Thomas. Thomas clocked in at 24.36, and John Hopkins finished .03 in front of Denison University.

"We got it out right from the beginning. Our backstroker took the lead out to a second. All four swimmers did their best times," said George Kennedy, John Hopkins head coach. "We just continued to lead, and we had a strong freestyler in the end, so it was just an awesome swim. It was a four-second drop from the morning, so it was really awesome."

Earlier in the preliminaries, Kenyon was disqualified in the 400-yard medley relay for jumping in too early. With the disqualification, Kenyon could not extend their team score of 154.

"It was just a bad exchange. Our backstroker had a lifetime best swim, but he paid for it a little bit at the end," Steen said. "His momentum coming into the wall was not what it should have been, and the breaststroker took off on what he thought was the last stroke.

"We got disqualified by the smallest of legal margins, and it was like .02. But legitimately, we false started and it's too bad and it would have been nice to see what they could have done in the finals - that's just the way it goes."

In the 200-yard individual medley, sophomore Nelson Westby of St. Olaf College won the finals by .05, and swimming head coach Bob Hauck said he wasn't surprised with the win.

"It's very exciting for (Westby) to win in the 200-yard individual medley out of lane one. He's been first most of the year, so we really felt like he would win that," Hauck said. "He's probably three or four most talented guys in the meet, so I think it was his expectation to win and he did it in the last 12 yards and often we see that out of champion level swimmers - they find a way to do it."

After placing seventh in the preliminaries in the 50-yard freestyle, sophomore Tim Whitbeck of Grove City College finished first with a time of 20.25, edging out teammate junior Caleb Courage by .07.

On the diving side, juniors Jon and Robert Dohring of Occidental College finished first and second, respectively, in the 1-meter diving.

"Diving, today, went really well. It was consistent, which it hasn't been in the past, so I was very happy with how it went today," Robert said.

Robert Dohring finished 3.75 points behind Jon Dohring for the 1-meter title. Jon Dohring was behind 27.65 points after the preliminaries, but finished 457.45-453.70 to win it.

"It's (the win) great. All year in our conference we've been going one and two, so I'm glad it happened again in the most important meet. But I would have been happy if he got first and if I got second," Jon said.

Day two of the NCAA Division Three Swimming and Diving Championships begins with the preliminaries at 11 a.m. Friday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center at the University of Houston.