Improving upon last year's fifth-place finish, the Johns Hopkins men's swimming team placed third out of 57 schools in the Division III NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships this past weekend.
Hopkins head coach George Kennedy was named D-III Coach of the Year after leading the Jays to the bronze medal and 329 total team points.
The women, who competed at NCAAs at the start of spring break, placed 11th out of 54 teams with 129 points earned by eight athletes.
"When you mix dedication and talent good things happen," said Kennedy. "We had a strong finish this year for the men because we focused on improving in all areas. We had 12 athletes at the meet. Kenyon had 17 and Emory had 18. We were the only team to score in every swimming event - a team effort."
Kenyon, with 556.5 points, won its 26th consecutive D-III title. The team's championship streak is the longest in any sport and in any division of the NCAA.
"Kenyon has the killer instinct," said Kennedy. "They have very talented athletes, a great coaching staff, and tradition. They focus on one meet each year and they have few distractions getting in the way."
Emory College placed 75.5 points above Hopkins with 404.5.
Hopkins won two silver medals with strong performances in the 200-yard and 400-yard medley relay. Juniors Tyler Harris and Brian Sneed and freshman Ryan Kim and Brad Test finished in 1:31.37 in the 200-yard medley relay. In the 400-yard medley relay the same four once again led the Jays to a second place finish.
Test captured silver in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.74 and junior Sean Kim took home the bronze in the 200-yard butterfly in 1:51.69. Harris placed sixth in both the 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke with times of 57.06 and 2:04.42. Classmate Zane Hamilton placed ninth and 10th in the events with times of 57.38 and 2:05.40, respectively.
"The team performed the best of any year since I've been here," said Hamilton. "It was really great to bounce back from a poor showing last year when we got fifth and with only 12 guys we were able to stay relatively close to the first and second place teams."
Senior co-captains J.P. Balfour and Jon Kleinman both performed well in their respective events. Balfour seventh in both the 200-yard backstroke and 200-yard individual medley and eighth in the 400-yard individual medley. Kleinman was 10th in both the 400-yard individual medley and 500-yard freestyle, while taking 12th in the 1650-yard freestyle.
"It was bittersweet to swim in my final meet as a senior," said Kleinman. "I was happy to lead the team at NCAAs with J.P. and I felt like the growth of a lot of the guys on the team was proven at NCAAs last year. This year people swam much better at the end of the year knowing they could swim fast and being confident in themselves."
"I think the leadership this year was truly the difference, not to mention that we had three freshmen who really performed well, which is rare at NCAAs," said Hamilton.
On the women's side, Emory won the meet for the first time ever with 399.5 points, while defending champion Kenyon had to settle for second place.
The Blue Jays placed ninth in the 400-yard medley relay led by sophomore Allie Foster, freshman Erica Pakkala, senior Diana Smirnova, and junior Kalei Walker. won the consolation final in 3:57.80. In the 400-yard freestyle relay, Foster, Smirnova, junior Abiona Redwood and Walker placed 13th with a time of 3:35.24.
"I was extremely happy with our relays at nationals," said sophomore Kelly Robinson. "Everyone got really excited because some of the races were very close, down to the last five yards or so."
Foster placed ninth in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:22.62. Foster also placed seventh with a time of 1:06.27 in the 100-yard breaststroke, while junior Jessica Chang placed 14th in 1:06.67. Walker finished eighth in the 200-yard freestyle finals with a time of 1:54.85. Junior Katie Herbst and Pakkala placed 15th and 16th in the 200-yard backstroke with times of 2:09.79 and 2:09.89, respectively. Robinson finished 14th in the 200-yard butterfly in 2:08.58.
"As a team, the women pulled it together to give their best shots," said Robinson. "We had good swims, although some personal disappointments but it just makes me look forward to see how well I can do next year. I think nationals was a hard time for the team because we brought two-thirds the number of swimmers that we had last year and the competition was a lot faster this year."
Every Holland Community Aquatic Center pool swimming record was broken during the women's championships.
"We have a great freshman class enrolling this fall," said Kennedy. "Our goal is to continue to improve."
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