GREENSBORO, NC - Senior tri-captain Michael Winget and freshman Kingsley Bowen of the Tufts Men's Swimming & Diving team both posted national top 10 finishes in the 100 butterfly at the 2016 NCAA Division III Championships on Thursday.
In the preliminaries on Thursday morning, Winget was ninth in the 100 fly with a school-record 48.75 time. It broke the 48.92 mark that Bowen won the NESCAC 100 fly with last month.
Also on Thursday, Bowen finished 11th in the 100 fly prelims with a time of 48.88 seconds. Both he and Winget qualified for the consolation finals and earned honorable mention All-American honors by finishing among the top 16 in the prelims.
In the consolation final, Winget held on to ninth place with a 48.82 time and Bowen moved up to 10th place with a 48.86 finish. Winget performed well over his #43 seed entering the event with a 51.30 seed time. Bowen was also better than his season-best, which was 48.92 to rank 16th entering the race.
Winget, in the midst of his third consecutive trip to NCAA's, achieved his third honorable mention All-American performance. His previous ones were in the 100 backstroke last season and the 100 back in 2014. He placed fifth in the finals of the NCAA 200 backstroke last season, the best finish by a Jumbo in an NCAA Swimming event since 1985. He will swim in that event this season on Saturday.
Bowen was racing at NCAA's for the first time. The honorable mention All-American award is the first of his career.
Tufts senior Anthony DeBenedetto was also in the 100 fly for the Jumbos finishing 38th with a time of 50.30 seconds. That was an improvement on his 50.75 qualifying time which was 41st entering the meet.
With the 16 points combined by Winget and Bowen today, in addition to junior diver Matt Rohrer's seventh-place finish earning 12 points in three-meter diving on Wednesday, Tuts' 28 total team points thus far was tied for 16th at the 2016 NCAA meet with two days remaining.
Friday is a busy day at the NCAA meet for the Jumbos. They have the potential to come home with multiple All-American awards in the 100 backstroke. Winget is the eight seed with a 49.13 time from the NESCAC preliminaries. Bowen is #15 in the event with a 49.55 season best. DeBenedetto ranks 15th in the NCAA 200 butterfly, where his 1:49.77 qualifying mark was notched in the NESCAC prelims. That event will go off also on Friday. Rohrer will compete in NCAA one-meter diving on Friday as well.
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