M. Richter, Davis Earn Landmark Titles for Goucher

BOYDS, Md. — First place showings from Morgan Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne) and Sam Davis (Wilmington, Del./Wilmington Friends) ensured that Goucher got the 2015 Landmark Swimming & Diving Championships off to a strong start.

Richter topped the field in the 500-yard freestyle, while Davis posted an NCAA D-III B qualifying time in his 50 free victory. The Gophers also had a runner-up finish from Colin Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne) in the 200 individual medley, and they set a total of six new school records.

The first of those marks came in the 200 free relay to start the evening. Davis, Brian Cha (Lake Oswego, Ore./Lakeridge), C. Richter and M. Richter finished fourth with a school-record time of 1:26.05, only a second and a half behind first place Merchant Marine.

Richter then topped the field in the 500 free. The junior posted the second fastest time in the race back in 2014, but had to settle for a ninth-place showing after failing to qualify for the finals. He ensured that history would not repeat itself with a new school record time of 4:46.42 in preliminaries.

That was the fourth-fastest qualifying time, but Richter cruised to a second and a half victory in the finals, lowering his time all the way down to 4:38.44. That was a new meet record, and it was Richter's fourth career Landmark title. Ben Shriner (Arlington, Mass./Arlington) also earned a point for Goucher with a 16th place time of 5:05.06.

Colin Richter was the next to break a school record in the 200 IM. He finished behind the NCAA D-III B qualifying time of 1:48.30 from champion Kevin Lindgren from Merchant Marine, but his result of 1:53.64 broke a Gopher mark which had stood since Mike Raley posted a 1:55.25 back on Feb. 16, 1996.

Davis was the top qualifier in the 50 free after taking a half-second off his school record time in the preliminaries (21.04). That mark was lowered down to 20.77 in the finals, well ahead of Marywood's Dan Adams (21.46) to give the senior captain his first Landmark title.

Two Goucher records fell in the final race of the evening, the 400 medley relay. Colin Richter began the race with a time of 52.48 in the 100 backstroke portion of the race, breaking his own school record set last February. He teamed with Cody Nelson (Duanesburg, N.Y./Schalmont), M. Richter and Davis to end the race in third place at 3:28.97, over two seconds faster than the previous school record set at last year's championships.

For the evening, the Gophers totaled 120 points. That puts them in fifth place, only nine points behind fourth place Marywood and 13.5 back of Catholic in third. Merchant Marine holds a commanding lead with 311 points.