Emory University senior Ross Spock claimed his first career individual National Championship (and third overall), tying for first place in the 100-yard backstroke, and the Emory women, in search of their fifth-consecutive title, continued to increase their lead in the team standings during the third day of competition at the 2014 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In an unusual occurrence, Spock split the National Championship in the 100-yard backstroke with Samuel Gill of Connecticut College, as the two finished with identical times of 47.62 seconds.  Spock's time was good for a school record, over a second better than his own program-best mark coming into the day, and was just six-hundredths of a second off the NCAA Division III record.

Spock now has three career NCAA Division III Championships, all of which have been claimed at this week's meet, including relay victories as a part of Emory's 200-yard medley and 400-yard medley relays.  It was the 13^th individual NCAA Championship in the program's history, and the first ever by an Eagle in the 100-yard backstroke.  It also set a new record for the most National Championships won by an Eagle in one year, and tied Chris Radpour, Chris Halstead and Patrick Augustyn for the most NCAA titles over a career.

Spock has recorded a team-best five all-America honors at this year's meet, running his program-best career total to 20.  He also became the ninth Eagle to record all-America honors in the same event for four-straight years with the win in the 100-yard backstroke.

Emory sophomore Andrew Wilson claimed his sixth career all-America honor and fourth of the year, finishing second in the 100-yard breaststroke.  His time of 54.26 seconds surpassed his own school record in the event, and bettered the previous NCAA meet record in the 100-yard breaststroke.

The Emory men's 800-yard freestyle relay added an all-America honorable mention finish, as sophomore Eagan Zettlemoyer, sophomore Matt Kuhlik, freshman Mitchell Cooper and senior Jake Stephens finished 10^th with a time of 6:43.56.

The men ended the third day in third place with 202.5 points, trailing first-place Denison University (374 points) and second-place Kenyon College (346 points).  Johns Hopkins University is in fourth place with 183 points.

Meanwhile, the Emory women opened up their lead in the standings, heading into the final day of competition tomorrow.  After beginning the day with a 41 point lead, Emory's women earned six individual all-America honors, four individual all-America honorable mentions and one all-America relay to increase the team's point total to 411.5, increasing their lead over second place Kenyon (299 points) to  112.5 points.  Johns Hopkins is currently in third with 298 points, followed by Denison in fourth with 276.

Two Emory women recorded second-place finishes in individual events on Friday, with junior McKenna Newsum-Schoenberg notching a time of 2:02.16 in the 200-yard butterfly and freshman Annelise Kowalsky claiming her fourth all-America honor of the meet with a time of 1:02.52 in the 100-yard breaststroke.  Other all-American finishes by Eagles in individual events on day three came from sophomore Elizabeth Aronoff (third place, 1:02.53) and senior Kylie McKenzie (eighth place, 1:03.78 in the preliminaries) in the 100-yard breaststroke, junior Nina Zook (sixth place, 2:02.45 in the preliminaries) in the 200-yard butterfly, and sophomore Ellie Thompson (sixth place, 55.59 seconds in the preliminaries) in the 100-yard backstroke.

Emory also had an all-America finish in the 800-yard freestyle relay, with senior Courtney McDermott, freshman Marissa Bergh, junior Megan Beach and junior Nancy Larson placing second with a time of 7:21.92.

Adding on individual all-America honorable mention finishes on Friday were freshman Claire Liu (11^th, 55.95 seconds) and senior Sadie Nennig (14^th, 55.97 seconds in the preliminaries) in the 100-yard backstroke and freshman Marcela Sanchez-Aizcorbe (10^th, 2:04.58) and junior Michelle York (15^th, 2:06.31) in the 200-yard butterfly.

The NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships will conclude on Saturday, March 22^nd, with the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard backstroke, 200-yard breaststroke, 1,650-yard freestyle, 400-yard freestyle relay and the women's three-meter dive all being contested.  The preliminaries are slated for a 10:00 AM start, while the finals will begin at 6:00 PM.