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Michael Del Moro led off the ninth-place 200 medley relay and set a new 100 backstroke record
at NCAA's
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KNOXVILLE, TN - The Tufts University men's swimming & diving team finished 20th nationally at the NCAA Division III Championships held at the University of Tennessee Wedneday through Saturday. The Jumbos earned All-American honors in five events.
On Saturday, freshman diver Johann Schmidt (Nanuet, NY) recorded the best Tufts finish of the week with a sixth place in the three-meter diving event. He totaled 506.45 points - just seven shy of the Tufts record held by national champion Keith Miller in 1982 - to score 13 of the team's 43 points at the meet. He had earned a spot in the three-meter finals with a 476.80 score, also sixth-best in that round.
Schmidt brought home two All-American honors. On Thursday, he received honorable mention All-American honors (finishes 9th through 16th) with a 12th place effort in the one-meter diving event. He scored 401.25 points in the final after accumulating 388.10 in the preliminaries to qualify for the 16-man final. Schmidt added his NCAA efforts on top of winning both conference titles earlier this season.
Tufts opened the meet well on Wednesday. Junior Owen Rood (Branford, CT) finished 12th in the 50 freestyle finals with a time of 20.67 seconds. He had earned a berth in the final with a time of 20.75 seconds in the preliminaries for 16th place, just 0.05 out of a 17th place finish that would have kept him out of the final. He improved to 12th place in the final, five spots better than the #17 seed that he entered the race as.
The 200 medley relay finished ninth in both the preliminaries and the final on Wednesday for honorable mention All-America citations. The Jumbo foursome of senior Michael Del Moro (Pequannock, NJ), senior Zed Debbaut (Hood River, OR) junior E.J. Testa (Cheshire, CT) and Rood combined for a 1:32.33 time in the prelims and 1:31.87 in the final. Debbaut, Del Moro and Rood repeated as All-Americans in the event including last year's eighth place with a 1:32.29 time.
The 400 freestyle relay of Rood, senior David Meyer (Clarendon Hills, IL), Testa and senior Gordon Jenkins (Kansas City, MO) broke the year-old school record with a 3:03.05 time for 11th place in the preliminaries on Saturday. They slipped to a 3:05.32 in the final for 16th, still good enough for honorable mention All-American awards.
Friday's racing saw the Jumbos narrowly miss the top 16 in two events. Del Moro broke his own school record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 50.79 seconds in the preliminaries. The finish was 19th overall, just 0.07 out of 16th place. The 800 freestyle relay - Rood, Meyer, Testa and Jenkins - swam 6:53.33 for 18th in a straight final, just 0.42 out of the top 16.
Coach Adam Hoyt's team placed in the top 20 at the NCAA meet for the second straight year.
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