Denison wins. It's over.

We mean the meet is over. What did you think we meant?

Women’s 1650

Unrelenting

At this point last season, JHU’s Kristin Cornish had an amusingly comfortable lead in Women’s 1650. Not only had Ms. Cornish swam a 16:29.52, becoming the first athlete ever to go under 16:30 in the mile that early in the season (and the first to break 16:30 at all since 2017), but also her competition lagged far behind. There was only one other athlete in Division III who had bested 17:00 in the 1650 - Tara Witkowski, who went 16:58.63, almost half a minute slower than Ms. Cornish.

This season, Denison is applying their strength-in-numbers philosophy to the 1650. To be clear, Denison’s strategy is not merely to throw bodies into events. Denison’s best are clearly elite swimmers. And Denison excels in developing many swimmers who are at the edge of the ultra-elite level in which Ms. Cornish comfortably resides. Denison’s best are more than good enough to finish high in their events and amass far more points than their opponents.

Denison’s Women know they don’t have to be on the top step of the podium as individuals in order to finish the meet atop the podium as a team.

This table doesn’t require much interpretation.

Denison Women’s performance in the 1650 Free.

One precedent, and it is not going to make you feel any better

We aren’t trying to freak-out our four remaining readers, but this has happened only once before in the entire history of Division III. Only once before did one team have three athletes go under 17:00 in Women’s 1650 before Nationals. Irritatingly, that team was…Denison in 2022. And they romped. They pulled 46 points from that event, more than twice as much as their closest competitor (Emory).

Even if these three athletes do not improve at all between now and March, Denison will take 3 of the top five to six spots in the mile at Nationals. Meaning none of them will get first place, but as a team they will win the mile at Nationals. Kristin Cornish will probably go sub 16:30 again, maybe even faster. She’ll get most of the glory (and she deserves it). And Denison will get most of the points.

Obviously, this situation could change. But if you are Denison’s competition, it’s not looking good.

Emory’s Jada Chatoor had a terrific swim, going 16:58.07, which sets her up nicely for the rest of the season. She is one of the top milers in Division III.

Men’s 1650

In the Men’s Mile, if you want to score points at Nationals, you probably need to be in the range of 15:30-something. The perennial elites - Kellen Roddy, Connor Vincent - are either already there or will be arriving soon. Today Denison Junior Lucas Conrads arrived, swimming a 15:31.56.¹

200 Back

Women

Emory’s Women took this one on points due to strong performances from Jane Sanderson and Megan Jungers, though the standout performance was undoubtedly Denison First-Year Liv Chow’s 2:00.63, good enough for second overall and first among the Division III competitors.

Men

WashU’s Alex McCormick is brilliant in the 200 Backstroke. Again, we don’t care about teams from other divisions, so for us he won this event. Huge day from that guy.

But can someone explain this bizarre notation?

Alex McCormick swam a 1:44.56 prelim in this same pool, on the same day, with the same timing system, and the same officials. He then swam a 1:44.76 in finals, and now the pool record is 1:44.76.

Same thing happened last night with Jake Meyer when he went faster in prelims, then had his marginally slower finals time declared the pool record. If this is an error, why does it keep happening? If this is not an error, can someone explain it?

The Emory Five did what they had to do (show up, don’t DQ), guaranteeing an Emory points win in this event.²

Denison’s Devin Testin moved up a slot when WashU’s Kyle Wolford joined the ranks of the disappeared at Trumbull. It’s like an ‘80s slasher movie over there. What happened to Nick Goudie and Crow Thorsen? They were like ‘I’ll be right back’ and no one has seen them since. Seriously, we hope everyone is doing OK. Central Ohio is an incubator for stomach viruses in the winter months.

Anyway, Mr. Testin posted a really solid 1:49.01, which would have won the B Final if he had competed there. As it was, his battlefield promotion netted his team two more points.

100 Free

Women

Emory’s Penelope Helm was facing an impossible task. She was completely surrounded by Denison swimmers in a no-win situation. She responded with a personal best 51.74. Hat’s off.

Denison’s Phoebe Ferguson showed a lot of range this weekend. She’s a dangerous swimmer. Her 51.58 was good enough for second overall and first among the D3s.

And as we discussed earlier, Denison won this event before we broke for lunch today. They had five swimmers in the A Final.

Men

Indianapolis finished 1-6, making this whole exercise a bit pointless. Caden Bjornstad and Harrison Pire had solid swims today. And this event netted points for the Eagles.³

200 Breast

Women

This was an event where the Eagles and the Big Red both had two swimmers in the A Finals, so order of finish was really going to matter. Drue Thielking was brilliant, going 2:15.93, good enough for second place (31 points). Esme Wright improved on her prelim time, but tied with a swimmer from EMU, so her points haul was 25.5.

Emory’s Fiona Arwood and Katie Cohen finished fourth and fifth (29 and 28 points). So let’s see Denison got 31 + 25.5 = 56.5 and Emory got 29 + 28 = 57.

If I’m Emory, I would just book it as a win and move on.

Men

Jake Meyer improved on his prelim time to go 1:55.02. That would have won 200 Breast in three of the last four nationals. It’s not even his main event. Unreal.

Henri Bonnault, Elijah Venos, and Patrick Daly finished within 0.50 seconds of each other in what must have been a thrilling finish (there were some issues with the video feed). They were all brilliant and their times are probably all invite-worthy.

Zach Zhao finished with a solid 2:02.51, securing 24 more points for Emory.

Those swims deserve more attention, but Jake Meyer was dropping a 1:55-low and chewing up the scenery. And these guys are going to be in the mix for the rest of the season.⁴

200 Fly

Women

Denison populated the hell out of that A Final. The Big Red swimmers just about matched their seed times, which was all they needed to do (that and show-up - an increasingly tricky proposition at this meet for some reason - and not DQ). To recap, Emily Harris, Emma Pritchett, Nikki Barnas, and Maria Mrosko had this thing won before they queued up for their post prelim ice bath (wait, I don’t know if they have an ice bath at Denison. They do at Kenyon. Always a big line.).

Peyton Watson is a WashU First-Year who overperformed in the B Final, with a 2:06.62 that - if the sequencing were different - would have placed her in the A Final. Good job out of Ms. Watson.

Men

We think McKee Thorsen bagged an invite time. There’s no way the invite line drops below his 1:47.74. Let us be the first to prematurely congratulate you, Mr. Thorsen. Jeff Echols grabbed third place.

Of course, Denison won that event as Max Soja, Dylan Escano, Max Lough, and Luke Landis put in solid performances and got to enjoy the athletic equivalent of compound interest. In the end, Denison edged out WashU by maybe 2 points.⁵

400 Free Relay

We learned a hard lesson yesterday about not trusting this HyTek on relays.

Denison won on both sides. We might be back with some analysis later this week.

Nice job everyone. Safe travels to the visiting teams. Congratulations Denison.

1. Ryan Gibbons is the top miler for the Eagles so far this season. Ryan Gibbons B Finaled in the 500 Free on Thursday, but did not swim today.

2. Sven Becker is among the top backstrokers for the Eagles. Sven Becker did not swim today.

3. Patrick Horton, Johnny Bradshaw, and Crow Thorsen are top freestylers for the Eagles. None were available to swim today.

4. Liyang Sun is a top breaststroker for the Eagles, and was unavailable to swim in this event.

5. Crow Thorsen is among the top butterflyers on the Eagles. Mr. Thorsen was unavailable to swim today.