Manz & Curley Lead Kenyon through Northwestern TYR Invitational

Friday, Saturday and Sunday have seen some tremendous efforts from a variety of Kenyon Lords and Ladies at the Division I TYR Invitational hosted by Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. Seven teams competed in the men’s meet, and nine in the women’s. The Lords and Ladies finished fifth and eighth respectively, after the final event on Sunday evening.

The biggest highlights of the meet came from Trevor Manz, a freshman at Kenyon this year. Over the course of the three day meet, Manz had five individual top eight finishes against DI competition, and his contributions to the Lords helped push them into fifth place in the overall standing at the meet.

On Friday night, Manz began with an impressive showing in the 50 breaststroke, taking seventh in 26.24 (he was 26.06 in prelims). Later, he finished fourth in the 200 IM, clocking in at 1:51.00 to easily clear the NCAA D3 B cut standard. At the conclusion of the session, Manz joined forces with Harrison Curley, Christian Josephson and Joey Duronio to post a sixth place finish in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:23.70 – also a NCAA B cut.

Curley joined Manz in picking up his own share of top eight finishes during the meet. On the first night, he took seventh in the 500 freestyle, finishing with a 4:34.86 to make another B cut for the Lords.

Friday’s other top finish came from the team of Duronio, Ryan Funk, Wes Manz and Brad Cowan in the 200 medley relay. The relay took eighth and finished in a time of 1:23.90, nine seconds under the NCAA B standard.

Saturday’s session began with Trevor Manz and Curley racking up another three top eight finishes (and another three B cuts) between them. Trevor collected fourth in the 400 IM (3:57.85) and sixth in the 100 breaststroke (56.60). Curley joined Trevor in the 400 IM, taking third, just over half a second ahead of his teammate.

For the final relay, Trevor teamed up with his older brother Wes Manz, Curley and Funk for a 6:56.40 to take seventh in the 800 freestyle relay.

On the final day of competition, the Lords returned to the pool 37 points behind fourth places University of Illinois-Chicago (214-251). Curley got the Lords off to a good start, collecting another B cut by dropping a 1:50.44 (1:49.79 in prelims) in his 200 backstroke for a seventh place finish. Two events later, Trevor Manz was at it again, turning in a 2:01.74, good for fifth place and another provisional qualification in the 200 breaststroke.

Josephson gave the Lords their final top eight individual finish of the meet in the 200 butterfly, finishing eighth in a time of 1:55.23 (1:53.53 in prelims – good for an NCAA B cut).

To close out the Invitational, the Manz brothers joined forces yet again with Funk and Duronio to take eighth in the 400 freestyle relay, finishing in a time of 3:05.50. They ended the meet with 322.5 points, in fifth place. Host Northwestern University topped the standings with 1054.5 points, followed by Michigan State University with 904.5, and Missouri State took third with 876.5 points.

On the Ladies’ side, Friday began with some strong showings in the relays. Haley Townsend, Jourdan Cline, Hannah Lobb and Megan Morris collaborated on the 200 freestyle relay, taking eighth with a 1:35.90, making their first NCAA B cut for the meet. At the conclusion of the session, three of those Ladies jumped onto another relay squad to make their second B cut of the day: Townsend, Cline and Morris joined Katie Kaestner for a 3:52.72 in the 400 medley relay.

Previously, Kaestner tied for ninth in the 50 breaststroke, touching in 29.62. Classmate Mariah Williamson earned an NCAA B cut in the 500 freestyle and took seventh place in the standings, finishing in 4:57.79.

On Saturday, Kaestner, Townsend and Cline put up strong showings in the consolation finals. Kaestner garnered another B cut in her 100 breaststroke with a ninth place finishing time of 1:03.95. Townsend returned to the consolation finals in both the 200 freestyle (1:54.49) and 100 backstroke (59.02), taking 15th and 16th place, respectively. Cline gave the Ladies a boost with a 13th place finish in the 100 butterfly, going under the B cut to do so in 57.67.

The 800 freestyle relay team of Kaestner, Williamson, Townsend and Natalie Parker finished sixth out of eighteen teams, touching in at 7:40.21 for the Ladies’ third relay B cut of the meet.

After the conclusion of Saturday’s events, the Ladies were tied for seventh place with Truman State University, with 138 points each.

On Sunday, Williamson gave the Ladies another top eight individual finish: she took seventh in the 1650 freestyle, finishing in 17:12.88, 27 seconds under the NCAA D3 B cut in the event. Amped up with success, Cline gave the Ladies their second top eight finish – clocking in at 26.07 (26.03 in prelims) in the 50 butterfly to take sixth.

Kaestner stepped it up from the bonus final of the 200 breaststroke, dropping over four seconds to swim a 2:20.35 – a  time that would have been 12th if she’d been in the consolation final, or sixth if she’d been top eight! That’s also yet another B cut for the Ladies.

To close out the meet, the Ladies put together a final relay squad comprised of Townsend, Lobb, Cline and Kaestner to take fifth in the 400 freestyle relay, touching in 3:29.34, good for their final B cut of the meet.

In final results, Kenyon finished eighth of nine teams with 199 points. Northwestern University took first with 1066, Michigan State University was second with 657 and Missouri State finished in third with 583.