The Grinnell College men’s swimming and diving team, led by another stellar performance by Michael Brus ’14, continued its dominance at the Midwest Conference Championships Sunday at Appleton, Wis.
Brus earned an NCAA automatic qualifying mark in the 200-yard backstroke and MWC Swimmer of the Year honors as the Pioneers claimed their 11th MWC team title in a row.The Swimmer of the Year award was the second in a row for Brus.
Grinnell wound up with 921.5 points as Erin Hurley was named the league men’s Coach of the Year for the fourth time. Lake Forest College was a distant second in the nine-team meet with 688.5 points.
Brus, an All-American last year in the 200 backstroke, won Sunday’s event in a school-record and MWC Championships time of 1:47.17. That beat his school mark of 1:47.81 set last year, and his league mark of 1:49.46.
Brus has now earned automatic NCAA qualification in two events this year, having done so in the 200 freestyle on Saturday.
Grinnell also set a school record in the 400 freestyle relay on Sunday, as Brus, Marco Fulgoni ’12, Joe Lytle ’14 and Thomas Lankiewicz ’12 won the event in 3:07.03. That broke the school and MWC marks of 3:07.41 set in 2011.
Grinnell’s other win Sunday came from Fulgoni in the 100 freestyle. He won in 47.78.
Dylan Gray ’14 was second in the 200 breaststroke (2:09.42), while placing third were Collin Kramer ’15 in the 1650 freestyle (17:17.41), Ben Weideman ’15 in the 200 backstroke (1:58.47) and Beck Ringdahl-Mayland ’13 in the 200 breaststroke (2:12.34).
Lankiewicz was fourth in the 100 freestyle (48.41), the same placing as Lytle ’14 in the 200 butterfly (2:01.23). Chris Kaiser-Nyman ’13 was fifth in the 200 butterfly (2:02.37).
