For the first time since 2002, the Valpo men’s swimming team boasts a league champion swimmer, as junior Dominic May (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) touched the wall first with a record swim in the 200-free Friday at the Summit League Championships in West Fargo, N.D. Junior Billy Bennett (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) also broke a program record en route to All-League honors in the 100-breaststroke.

How It Happened

• May qualified third for the 200-free finals Friday morning, and then proceeded to drop over a second off his prelim time to leapfrog into first place in the finals Friday evening as he touched the wall in 1:38.43 to win the event by nearly eight-tenths of a second.
• The event win is the first by a Valpo men’s swimmer since Tim Weidner took top honors in the 50-free at the 2002 Mid-Continent Conference Championships.
• With the event win, May has earned All-League honors for a second straight season.
• In the 100-breaststroke, Bennett broke the school record in the morning prelims with a qualifying time of 55.94. He then clocked a 55.74 in the evening finals to lower his own record and place second in the event to earn All-League accolades.
• Sophomore Gus Rytting (Houston, Texas/Lamar) clocked a 57.12 in the finals of the 100-breaststroke as well, good for a seventh-place finish and improving upon his fourth-best time in Valpo history.
• In the 200 medley relay, the team of Derek Eidson (Ventura, Calif./Ventura), Bennett, Brett Strongman (Wolverine Lake, Mich./Walled Lake Central) and Brett Little (Princeton, Iowa/North Scott) clocked a team time of 1:33.49 to place fourth and moving into third all-time at Valpo.
• Eidson touched the wall in 52.38 in the 100-back to place 12^th in the event and lead the Brown and Gold. Freshman Drew Wilson (Sugar Grove, Ill./Aurora Central Catholic) led Valpo in the 400 IM with a 13^th-place finish, posting a time of 4:19.61.
• Eidson, May, Brian Daniels (Brookfield, Wis./Brookfield East) and Noah Zapolski (Davenport, Iowa/Bettendorf) swam a team time of 6:54.09 in the 800 free relay, placing fourth and moving into fourth all-time in the Valpo record books.
• The men finished day two of the Summit League Championships in fifth place with 236.5 points.  

Next Up

The Summit League Championships conclude on Saturday, April 16 with the final day of competition. Prelims start at 10 a.m., with event finals at 5 p.m.