Emory University junior Patrick Augustyn and senior April Whitley each won the first individual National Championships of their careers, leading the Eagles during the third of four days of the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships.

Augustyn won the 200-yard butterfly with a school-record time of 1:46.87 in the finals, besting the previous school record by 1.63 seconds.  He claimed the first National Championship for the Emory men since former Eagle Keith Diggs won the 400-yard individual medley in 2008, and the 10^th National Title overall for the men’s program.  Augustyn is the first Eagle to ever win the men’s 200-yard butterfly at the NCAA Championships.

Meanwhile, Whitley claimed her first career individual National Championship, and her third title overall this meet, winning the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:02.11 in the finals, and a school-record mark of 1:01.81 in the preliminaries.  It was the 22^nd individual championship in the history of the women’s program, and the 29^th overall including relays.  Whitley won the fifth 100-yard breaststroke National Championship in the women’s program’s history and first since Kendal Hansen’s title in the event in 1993.

Besides Augustyn’s win in the 200-yard butterfly, Emory senior Mackenzie Perry earned an all-America finish in the event as well with a seventh-place finish in a time of 1:49.22 in the preliminaries.  Earning all-America honorable mentions in the event were Matthew O’Brien (10^th place, 1:49.98) and Benjamin Redpath (13^th place, 1:51.22).

Also setting a school-record with an all-America finish for the Emory men was freshman Ross Spock, who finished third in 100-yard backstroke with a time of 49.03 seconds, besting his own school record set earlier in the year.  The Eagles also received an all-America finish from their 800-yard freestyle relay team of Mark Bernstein, Sean Ransenberg, Peter O’Brien and Justin Leemis, which finished fourth in a time of 6:39.54.

With one day remaining the Emory men are in third place in the team standings with 271.5 points, trailing first-place Kenyon College (362.5) and second-place Denison University (327.5).  The Eagles lead fourth-place M.I.T. by 110.5 points.

Meanwhile, the women maintained their firm grip on first place heading into the final day of competition, as the Eagles have now scored 420 points to lead second-place Denison (328 points) and third-place Williams College (301 points).

Besides Whitley’s performance, the Eagles set school records in two other events during the day.  Freshman Sadie Nennig broke the program record in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 55.80 seconds, finishing second overall.  The Eagles’ 800-yard freestyle relay team also set a school record with a time of 7:20.22, as Anne Culpepper, Whitley Taylor, Katie Mroz and Liz Horvat finished second overall in the event.

Also earning all-America honors during day three was Leslie Hackler, who finished seventh in the finals of the 200-yard butterfly after swimming a time of 2:02.75 in the preliminaries.

Picking up all-America honorable mentions during the day were Laura Manor in the 200-yard butterfly (15^th place, 2:04.83), Jacqueline Schneider in the 100-yard backstroke (11^th place, 56.73 seconds) and Jennifer Aronoff in the 100-yard breaststroke (ninth place, 1:03.73).

The NCAA Championships will conclude tomorrow with the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 400-yard freestyle relay, 1,650-yard freestyle and the men’s three meter dive.