Richter Claims Third Straight Title in 100 Butterfly

Photo courtesy of Brian Schneider Photography

BOYDS, Md. — Morgan Richter (Cleburne. Texas/Cleburne) broke the existing school, meet and conference records in the 100-yard butterfly on the middle day of the 2016 Landmark Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships when he was clocked at 49.72 seconds during the preliminaries today.

Richter's time in the championship finals was 44-hundredths of a second slower, but still fast enough for the two-time defending champion to win his third straight title in the event and No. 8 overall in his illustrious four-year career at Goucher.

In the finals, the senior was clocked at :50.16, allowing him to finish more than 9-tenths of a second ahead of the runner-up, William Kelsik from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy.

In Jerel McCord (Fort Wayne, Ind./South Side), Goucher had a second swimmer in the 100 butterfly finals. He wound up in sixth place as he completed the event in :54.02. There were an additional three swimmers from head coach Thomas Till's squad in the consolation finals: Ben Shriner (Arlington, Mass./Arlington) placed 11th (:54.75), Blake Rhodes (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles West) was 12th (:54.81) and Andrew Coon (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) was 15th (:56.79).

The Gophers earned 46 points in the 100 butterfly.

They picked up an additional 32 points in the 100-yard breaststroke, where Colin Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne) placed fourth with his time of :57.72, Cody Nelson (Duanesburg, N.Y./Schalmont) was sixth (:59.79) and Justin Prendergast (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Twp.) was 13th (1:04.74).

In the 200-yard medley relay, Goucher's entry of Colin Richter, Nelson, Morgan Richter and Coon was clocked at 1:37.25, good for third place and 32 points. The Gophers scored another 28 points for a fifth-place finish by the foursome of Rhodes, Shriner, Ian Furst (North Reading, Mass./homeschooled) and Nelson in the 800 free relay (7:30.54).

With a two-day score of 245 points, Goucher is in fifth place and only 32 points behind fourth-place Marywood.