15-Year-Old School Record in 800 Free Relay Gets Taken Out

Gophers Add 111 Points to Total, Hold On to Fifth Place

READING, Pa. — A school record that had stood for nearly 15 years was broken today at the 2012 Landmark Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships by Goucher's entry in the 800-yard freestyle relay.

The foursome of Kyle Williams (Andover, N.J./Newton), Daniel Montoya (Chihuahua, Mexico/ITESM Campus Chihuahua), Matthew Brower (Staten Island, N.Y./Curtis) and Brendan McFadden (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley) completed the event in third place with a time of 7:19.29, which was more than 1.5 seconds faster than the former record established on Feb. 16, 1996.

The Gophers earned 32 points for the third-place finish in the 800 medley relay and a total of 111 points on the middle day of the three-day championship meet. They enter the final day of competition in fifth place with a score of 204 points.

Twenty-seven of the points Goucher picked up today came from the 100-yard backstroke where Brower placed fifth (:54.75), Williams was sixth (:55.30) and Kevin Wons (Bedford, N.H./Souhegan) was 15th (1:00.90).

McFadden claimed a spot in the championship finals of the 200 freestyle and placed seventh with his time of 1:49.79.

Goucher had three additional swimmers in consolation finals: Montoya placed 11th in the 100 breaststroke (1:04.45), Charlie Leonard (Walkersville, Md./Walkersville) was 15th in the 100 butterfly (:55.40) and John Vincent (Seattle, Wash./Roosevelt) was also 15th in the 100 breast (1:09.00). During the preliminaries earlier in the day, Leonard earned his spot in the consolation finals in the 100 butterfly by posting a time of :54.00, breaking his own school record in the event of :54.31 he set at last year's conference meet.

Goucher's entry of Brower, Montoya, Leonard and McFadden completed the 200 medley relay in 1:40.15, good for sixth place.