Barton Swimming adds two more medalists on National’s day three, men in 7th and women 11th headed to final day #GoBarton

The Barton Community College swim teams added two more medalists on Friday to its historic first trip to the NJCAA National Swimming and Diving Championships held in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Now with nine top-eight finishes, the Cougars slipped two spots in the team standings during the day to sit in 7th place with 232 points while the women remained in 11th accumulating 67 total points through the first three days.

The squads will wrap up the four-day Championships on Saturday with action set to begin at the outdoor Anne Wilder Aquatic Complex at 8:30 a.m. Central Time. Coverage links can be found on the schedule tab of the Barton Athletic website located at www.BartonSports.com.

In the final individual swim event of day three, Keagan Wilson held serve from his 200 fly prelim placing in shaving off over two seconds in the finals for a 1:56.22 to maintain his 5th national spot and grab his third medalist honor. Wilson nabbed Barton's second official historic medalist honor with a 7th place in the 50 freestyle on Wednesday before Thursday's 5th place national spot in the 100 fly.

Earning the program's highest placer to date with a 4th place finish in Thursday's 50 backstroke, Dawson Gantenbein earned his second individual medal with an 8th place 54.89 time in the 100 backstroke. The time was .10 second slower than his 5th place prelim time but was jumped in the standings by three better final swims by other competitors. Noah Childs bettered his prelim time by .15 to move up a slot to 14th overall to give Barton thirteen points in the event.

The Cougars picked up nine points in the day's opening event as William Spitz posted a 56.98 prelim 100 IM time but slipped one spot in the second round with a slightly slower 57.41 to place 11th. Elijae Draper's opening 1:00.83 was good to score points and despite a slower 1:02.43 time in the second round, it did not affect the standings as he finished in 14th for three of the points.

Phane Pedigo had a great second round cutting nearly two seconds off his 500 freestyle prelim time but fell one spot to place 16th in 5:10.93. Sean Williams also improved in his second time in the pool, holding on to his 100 breaststroke 12th spot in clocking a 1:02.85.

Barton concluded the day with a spot increase in the 800 freestyle projections as Corey Harbaugh, Childs, Pedigo, and Williams stopped the clock in 7:32.28 to earn 7th nationally.

The Lady Cougars had two open events on day three, with Kayla Hennen highlighting the individual action with an 11th national finish in the 100 breaststroke. In 10th place after prelims, Hennan took a half second off her second round but it wasn't enough to hold the spot being edged out by .07 seconds at the wall.

Hennan was joined by Sydney Williams, Mercedes Mahakijkittichai, and Reagan Smyth in the 800 freestyle relay for a 10th place finish in a season best 9:06.17 time.