Indian River On Road to #35

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  That's the case in the second night of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Championships.  Indian River sits atop both the men's and women's standings and is well-positioned to extend its string of thirty four men's and twenty eight women's titles.  IRSC's men own the longest streak of national championships among all sports.  The IRSC women own the third-longest streak, just one fewer than Kenyon College, which has won twenty-nine consecutive Division III titles.

Indian River got out to a big lead beginning with the 200 Freestyle Relay.  The team of Mary O'Sullivan, Jennifer Marquez, Cara Potter built up such a lead that Monika Mialka had a half-pool head start on runner-up Darton College.  River's time of 1:32.95 dropped two seconds from the seven year old record.

The IRSC men got a record all their own, but not by as wide of a margin.  Emmett Walling began the day with a new NJCAA record in prelims.  At night he led off with a 19.54.  That essentially left a race for second between Lincoln and Darton College.  DC's Chris Rojas was closing fast but unable to catch Lincoln's Brian Spittler.

Jennifer Marquez and Mateo DeAngulo followed with two more IRSC wins in the 500 freestyle.  Marquez led a 1-2-3 sweep for the women.  DeAngulo, a Columbian Olympian that signed with LSU in 2007 slipped under Jack Taylor's record with a 4:22.17.

IRSC freshmen Mary Frank and Jessica Chandlee topped  sophomore teammates Katie McRoberts and Tina McCaw to lead a monopoly at the top of the awards stand.  Frank won in 2:07.00 though Chandlee looks to be the favorite in the 400 tomorrow.

Lincoln's Brian Spittler snapped the River's win streak with a win in the 200 IM.  The former Nittany Lion opened up an early lead before IRSC's Andy Garcia-Montes closed the gap in the breaststroke.  The pair matched each other stroke-for-stroke with Spittler emerging the victor.

O'Sullivan, who has signed with Texas Christian, returned for her second win of the evening and bettered her lead-off with a record 23.13.  Relay-mates Mialka and Potter completed a IRSC sweep.

Emmett Walling captured the men's 50 freestyle.  The Southern Cal signee broke Gideon Leow's record in the morning.  He added 0.27 at night, but still left his nearest competitor far behind.  Darton's Chip Aplin moved up a spot from prelims to deny River a 1-2 finish.

By night's end, IRSC opened up a 103 point lead over Lincoln on the men's side and 138 margin over Darton on the women's side.