Lords complete quarter-century of swimming dominance

ST. PETERS, Missouri (March 20, 2004) Not since 1979 has the National Collegiate Athletic Association known any Division III swimming champion other than the Kenyon College Lords. Saturday at St. Peters Rec-Plex, the Lords completed their twenty-fifth consecutive nation championship run as they posted a winning total of 678.5 points. Emory University finished second with 446 points and Carnegie-Mellon finished third with 307 points.

The Lords' streak of twenty-five straight national titles is a record that encompasses all sports and all division of the NCAA. In fact, the streak is older than all but one member of the Kenyon team. The next closest active streak of national titles is six, a string owned by the Methodist College women's golf team.

Kenyon's 'Drive for 25' was steered by senior Marc Courtney-Brooks ( Columbus , OH / St. Charles ), who was tabbed the NCAA 'Swimmer of the Year' for the third straight season. Courtney-Brooks won six of the seven events he entered. He won the 200-yard individual medley (1:47.72) and was victorious in the 100-yard freestyle (44.23) for the third straight season. Courtney-Brooks also was a part of four winning relay teams, including the record-setting 400-yard medley relay team (3:16.70). His performance at the championship gave him a Kenyon and an NCAA record 23 career titles--seven individual titles and 16 relay titles. He also became just the second man in Kenyon history to collect the maximum 28 All-America awards.

Courtney-Brooks' toughest competition came from teammate Andrejs Duda ( Jelgava , Latvia /Jelgava No. 4). Duda, a sophomore, also won six of seven events and handed Courtney-Brooks his only loss, as he beat him to the wall in the 100-yard butterfly (48.07). He made it a clean sweep of the butterfly events by going on to win the 200-yard butterfly (1:47.32). Additionally, Duda swam on four winning relay teams, including teaming up with Courtney-Brooks, Russell Hunt ( Columbus , OH / Upper Arlington ) and Davis Zarins ( Riga , Latvia / Riga Specialized School ) in the record-setting 400-yard medley relay.

Hunt, a junior, and classmate Elliot Rushton ( Delta , BC , Canada /S. Delta Secondary) both added three more titles to the Kenyon total. Hunt took all of his titles in relay competition, while Rushton won one relay title and two individual titles. On his own, Rushton won the 500-yard freestyle (4:24.57) and took the 1,650-yard freestyle in a record time (15:21.69), besting former teammate Michael Bonomo's two-year-old record of 15:27.73. Rushton later joined Courtney-Brooks, Leandro Monteiro ( Sao Paulo , Brazil /IESA), and David DeHart ( Boulder , CO / Fairview ) to win the 800-yard freestyle relay (6:38.87).

Both Monteiro and Zarins finished with two titles each, while DeHart, Thomas Ashby ( Pittsburgh , PA / North Allegheny ) and Jimmy Berger ( Mansfield , OH / St. Peters ) rounded out Kenyon's championship run with one title apiece. In all, Kenyon won eleven of the twenty championship events, including sweeping all five relay events for the third straight season.

The Lords cruised through the three-day championship by racking up 209 points Thursday, then adding another 273 points Friday to open up a 192-point lead over second-place Emory. With 196 more points Saturday, the Lords helped head coach Jim Steen collect his forty-first national title (23 with men, 18 with women), more than any other coach in the history of the NCAA.