200 Butterfly Crown Sits Proudly on Richter's Head

Gophers Beat Out Drew for Sixth Place by 130 Points

SCRANTON, Pa. — Morgan Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne) became the first male swimmer from Goucher to be crowned a Landmark Conference champion when he was the first to finish in the 200-yard butterfly today.

When the 2013 Landmark Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championhsips came to a close this evening, head coach Thomas Till's squad was firmly entrenched in sixth place with a three-day total of 275 points. While the Gophers finished only 25 points in back of fifth-place Catholic, they were able to build up an impressive 130-point cushion over Drew, which ended up in seventh place in the final team standings.

The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy continued its dominance by claiming its sixth consecutive Landmark title in the sport of men's swimming and diving.

Richter's winning time in the 200 butterfly of 1:54.70 is both a new school record — which was 2:00.33 by Jamie Weatherly in 1995 — and a new facility record for the Marywood Aquatics Center. During the preliminaries, Richter turned in a time of 1:59.64, the first time in the history of Goucher's swimming program that a male swimmer completed the 200 butterfly in under two minutes.

The Gophers also had a swimmer in the 200 butterfly consolation finals: Patrick McNeel (Flagstaff, Ariz./Flagstaff) finished in 14th place with his time of 2:15.98.

Another school record which dated back to the 1990s also fell today as Danny Carroll (Ithaca, N.Y./Ithaca) completed the 1650 free style in 17:37.14, good for 11th place. The former record of 17:42.35 was established in 1997 by Logan Smith.

A third school record went down during today's finals, this one in the 400 free relay where the entry of Colin Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne), Brendan McFadden (Malvern, Pa./Great Valley), Sam Davis (Wilmington, Del./Wilmington Friends) and Morgan Richter posted a combined time of 3:14.27 to finish in fourth place.

Colin Richter added a third third-place performance today in the 200 backstroke to the two he achieved earlier in the meet in the 200 individual medley (Friday) and the 100 back (Saturday). He was clocked at 1:57.64 in the 200 back.

The Gophers had two swimmers apiece in the consolation finals of both the 200 breaststroke and 100 free. In the 200 breast, Cody Nelson (Duanesburg, N.Y./Schalmont) placed 10th overall (2:15.74) and Brian Cha (Lake Oswego, Ore./Lakeridge) was 16th (2:23.89); in the 100 free, McFadden was 14th (:49.32) and Davis was 16th (:50.06).