GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Ursinus College men's swimming team picked up four more program records and added three medals to its cache on the third day of the Centennial Conference championship at Gettysburg.
When the water settled on another fast day at Bullets Pool, the Bears stood in fourth place in the team standings with 357 points. Ursinus is just 20 points behind Franklin & Marshall in third and 54 back of Gettysburg in second while reigning champion Swarthmore will go into Sunday with an advantage of almost 200 points.
Freshman Daniel Mueser and junior Jacob Menzer each broke a school record and combined to take down another in the 200 free relay, joining junior Casey Lear and freshman Ryan Carkhuff to post a 1:23.67. The mark landed them in fourth place, less than a quarter of a second off the podium, and was almost one-and-a-half seconds clear of the previous team record from last year's conference meet.
Senior James Callaghan won his third consecutive silver medal in the 400 IM, narrowly edging his own school record with a 4:04.49, just over a quarter-second ahead of Dickinson's Will Freeman in third. Senior Devin Nielsen (4:21.73), freshman William Clift (4:24.26), freshman Matthew Seeburger (4:28.79), and senior Kevin Gill (4:36.54) all swam in the B final and occupied places 13-16 in order.
Mueser opened the morning prelim session by setting a new program record in the 100 fly, and he came back to go even lower with a 49.94 in the finals. The rookie earned a bronze medal and finished just .02 seconds out of second, shattering the previous Ursinus standard of 51.32 in the process.
Menzer bested his own record with a 1:40.86 in the 200 free prelims, and his time of 1:41.42 in the final was enough to earn him a bronze medal. Junior Jared Krawetz placed ninth in 1:43.49, while Carkhuff (1:45.50) took 15th and Lear (1:49.37) was 16th.
Senior Reid Luksic was just off the school-record place in the 100 breast, placing sixth in a time of 58.86. He was just ahead of the current record-holder, as senior Maxwell Coulter took seventh at 58.96. Freshman Matthew Snyder was ninth (59.66) and Nielsen (1:01.42) was 13th.
Sophomore Michael Prior grabbed fifth place in the 100 back (51.23), where senior Travis Venables wound up in 16th (55.79).