The Emory University Men's Swimming and Diving team added another event national championship to its ledger as well as a national runner-up performance on Thursday as the 2019 National Championships continued in Greensboro, NC.
The 200 Freestyle Relay team of junior Sage Ono, senior Zachary Chen, freshman Colin LaFave and senior Trey Kolleck captured the team's second event national championship at 2019 national meet, turning in a winning time of 1:19.99. The title is Emory's fourth consecutive in the event.
In the 1-meter dive, freshman Lucas Bumgarner was terrific in his NCAA debut, recording a national runner-up finish with a finals score of 515.75. The second place effort is the highest finish for an Emory men's diver in either event since Chris Radpour won both the 1-meter and 3-meter championships in 1990.
Freshman Zach Lorson earned a bronze finish in the 400 IM with a finals mark of 3:51.40 as did the 400 Medley Relay team of Ono, Kolleck and freshman Jason Hamilton and Hwa Min Sim. Kolleck did his best to run down WashU and Denison during the freestyle anchor leg (43.00 split) but ran out of real estate as Emory took third with a time of 3:14.79.
Sim, Hamilton and sophomore Kellen Stillman collected their first career individual All-America awards on the night with Sim recording a sixth place showing in the 100 Fly (48.25), Hamilton tying for sixth in the 400 IM (3:53.07) and Stillman finishing seventh in the 200 Free at 1:39.09.
The Eagles secured three All-America Honorable Mention swims on Thursday with senior Thomas Gordon following up his 500 Free title with a ninth place effort in the 200 Free (1:38.88), freshman Will O'Daffer placing 15th in the 400 IM (3:57.93) and senior Matt Rogers rounded out the field in the 200 Free with a time of 1:40.04.
Through two days of competition, Emory is in third place with 259.5 and trails Denison (305.5) and Kenyon (272) heading into Friday. Day three's schedule of events features the 200 Fly, 100 Back, 100 Breast and the 800 Free Relay. Preliminaries start at 10:00 AM EST with finals to follow at 6:00 PM EST.