Davis Takes Third Place, Sets School Record in 50 Free

SCRANTON, Pa. — Both of the times Goucher's Sam Davis (Wilmington, Del./Wilmington Friends) posted in the 50-yard freestyle today at the 2014 Landmark Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships were faster than the one which had stood as the school record in the event for nearly two decades.

In the preliminaries this morning, the junior was clocked at 21.63 seconds, shaving 35-hundredths of a second off the record of :21.98 established by Mike Raley back in 1996, plus he earned a spot in the championship finals. He came back tonight and completed the event in :21.64, good for third place and 16 points for Goucher's team total.

That still leaves Raley with three existing school records, all set in 1996. His time of 1:55.25 in the 200-yard individual medley is still the fastest in the history of Goucher's men's swimming program; the other records he still holds are :57.32 in the 100-yard breaststroke and 2:07.52 in the 200 breast.

Davis was the only swimmer from Goucher to advance to the championship finals in an individual event on the opening day of the three-day meet, but the Gophers were represented in the consolation finals of both the 500 free and the 200 IM.

In the 500 free, Morgan Richter (Cleburne, Texas), the reigning Landmark champion in the 200 butterfly, recorded a time of 4:52.88 in the preliminaries, which kept him out of the championship finals by 1.4 seconds. His time tonight of 4:46.99, which breaks the school record of 4:47.92 set by Kyle Williams in 2011, made the sophomore the ninth-place finisher overall, but it would have landed him in second place behind only Catholic's Guido Saccaggi (4:40.96) had he made it to the grouping of the top eight entrants.

In the 200 IM, sophomore Colin Richter (Cleburne, Texas/Cleburne) picked up seven points for the Gophers by placing 10th overall with his career-best time of 1:56.91.

Colin Richter broke his own school record in the 100 backstroke while leading off for Goucher in the 400 medley relay, completing his portion in 53.18 seconds. He was followed, in order, by Cody Nelson (Duanesburg, N.Y./Schalmont), Morgan Richter and Davis, and the combined time of the entry was 3:33.14, another school record. The Gophers took fifth place in the event, earning 28 additional points.

Goucher's entry of Grant Gerber (Portland, Maine/Casco Bay), Dean Silverman (Chappaqua, N.Y./Horace Greeley), Patrick Tribbett (Kingman, Ariz./Kingman) and Andrew Coon (Cumberland, Maine/Greely) placed seventh in the 200 free relay (1:35.46).

At the conclusion of the first day, head coach Thomas Till's team sits in sixth place with a total of 84 points. The Gophers trail fifth-place Scranton by only six points.