Air Force Academy
Denver (Sprint Championships)
Falcons fall to DU in sprint format
1/29/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
by Quinn Horner
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. -- The Air Force men's swimming and diving team fell to University of Denver, 246-114, in the annual Sprint Championships held in Denver on Saturday, Jan. 28, and closed their regular season competition with a 9-2 record. The unique format of this sprint elimination meet consists of three 50s of each stroke being swam to eventually whittle the field down to the four fastest swimmers. Before, in between, and after each round, the 200 medley relay, 200 free, 500 free, 200 IM, and 200 free relay are also swam.
After a second-place finish in the 200 medley relay opener with teammates Devon Davis, Zach Knoche, and Lars Knutson (1:28.09), Steffen Mount held on for a third-place finish in the 50 butterfly (22.16) in his third and final round. In the 50 backstroke finals, Davis (22.56) was second, Cole McAnany (22.64) was third, and Joey Gebhart (22.73) was fourth. Knoche tied for second in the 50 breast in 25.16 and Kevin Fanter took a close fourth in 25.19. In the final round of the 50 freestyle, Jordan Dahle was third in 20.38 and Mount took fourth in 20.46.
Andrew Faciszewski's 200 free in 1:39.85 missed first place by half a second, while Ben Brockman (1:40.18) and Garrett Glaudini (1:43.69) followed closely in third and sixth place, respectively. Faciszewski claimed another second place in the 500 free (4:33.23), with Glaudini in fifth (4:37.77) and Brockman in sixth (4:40.26). In the final individual race of the night, Derek Brecht (1:53.39), Kyle Bundesmann (1:53.99) and Keven Pollard (1:54.19) took third, fifth, and sixth places, respectively, in the 200 IM. The Falcons ended the meet with a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle relay consisting of Mount, Knutson, Michael Hannigan, and Dahle (1:20.41).
While competing against DU at the AFA Diving Invitational in Colorado Springs, the divers contributed to some great performances from down the road. Erich Drollinger earned the only first-place finish of the meet on the one-meter springboard (242.70), followed by teammates Nicholas Piontek (239.45) in second and AJ Echebrecht (238.70) for third. On the three-meter, Echebrecht took second (255.15), Kevin LeCours third (250.80), and Drollinger was fifth (240.30).
"DU just crushed us tonight," remarked head coach Rob Clayton. "We actually swam pretty well and had some nice, close races. We've gotten the best of them in the last couple of years in this sprint meet, but they were loaded for bear and took it all out on us. Despite it being a rough night for us, we're walking away with confidence. I feel we're in a great place for conference and with some rest and tuning, we're excited for what's to come."
The men will spend the next three weeks at home to prepare to defend their title at the 2017 WAC Championships in Houston, Texas from February 22-25.
Players Mentioned
