Twin Cities, MN…The College of New Jersey’s men’s swimming team wrapped competition on Saturday night at the 2009 NCAA Division III men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships, which were held at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and hosted by Macalester College.
Kenyon College would garner both the men’s and women’s team championship titles marking the 30th straight title for Kenyon’s men’s squad and the 23rd consecutive for the Kenyon women.
TCNJ’s men’s squad would finish in tenth place in the team standings with 130 points. The tenth place showing marked the program’s third top ten finish and the second straight Top Ten finish.
For the second day in a row, TCNJ’s junior Myles O’Connor (Santa Monica, CA) broke his own school record. This time he broke his mark in the 200 breaststroke event with his trials performance of 2:02.67, which had him seeded seventh entering the championship finals. He set the school mark of 2:02.78 at the 2009 Met Championships in late February. He finished in fifth place in the finals after posting another school-record time in the finals (2:01.36) to earn his third career individual All-America honor.
In the men’s 200 backstroke race, senior Mike Molloy (Toms River, NJ/Toms River East), senior Mike Heaney (Voorhees, NJ/Bishop Eustace), and junior James VanBiervliet (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) competed, but did not advance to the championships. Molloy finished in 28th place in 1:52.98, while Heaney took 31st in 1:53.83 and VanBiervliet took 38th in 1:56.99.
TCNJ was represented in the 100 freestyle event by rookie Mike Vernoia (Hillsborough, NJ/Immaculata) and sophomore Shawn Kircher (Toms River,NJ/Toms River East). Kircher finished 31st in 45.89, while Vernoia took 42nd in 46.36.
TCNJ also posted a 10th place showing in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:01.85, breaking TCNJ’s school record which had stood at 3:02.33. TCNJ was seeded 15th after a trials time of 3:03.58 behind the efforts of senior Tom Nawrot (East Brunswick, NJ/East Brunswick), Vernoia, sophomore Tom Medvecky (Piscataway, NJ/Piscataway), and Kircher. TCNJ changed the order in the finals as Nawrot, Kircher, Medvecky and Vernoia made up the relay.
Sophomore Tim Rauch (Hillsborough, NJ/Hillsborough) took to the water for the Lions in the 1,650 freestyle and finished in 21st in the times finals with a time of 16:04.63.