GREENSBORO, N.C. – Jake Burris achieved the best finish by an Albion College diver in the NCAA Division III Championships to put the exclamation point on a remarkable day for the Britons.
In addition to Burris' sixth-place finish in the 1-meter competition, the 800-yard freestyle relay (Sebastian Tostado, Derek Bosko, Parker Belmore and Tom Parsons) set a school record time of 6:45.53 to finish 13th and Henry Swett produced a 15th-place finish in 1-meter diving.
The Britons produced 23 points Friday to vault into 26th place in the team standings. Albion has more scoring opportunities Saturday as Bosko is seeded sixth in the 100-yard freestyle and the Britons will swim in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
"We are swimming and diving with confidence," Head Coach Jake Taber said. "Each session is a little better than the last. We are beginning to realize this is a meet where we belong."
Burris, a first-year student-athlete from Chelsea, Mich., became Albion's first All-American diver since Dan Fradeneck was seventh in the 1-meter competition in 2005. He started the final round scoring 54.60 on a forward 2 ½ somersault and closed with a reverse 1 ½ somersault, 1 ½ twist that produced 53.30. His final score was 463.75.
Swett, a first-year student-athlete from Marshall, Mich., moved up a place after finishing 16th in the preliminary round. His first dive in the consolation round, a forward 2 ½ somersault, was awarded 52 points. He also got 46.80 points from an inward 1 ½ somersault in the fourth round and finished with a total of 395.10.
According to Diving Coach Eric Burris, confidence was essential as the Britons rebounded from a disappointing performance in the 3-meter competition on Wednesday.
"We did not have a good day on Wednesday," Eric Burris said. "The nerves from performing on a bigger stage played into that.
"Jake and Henry were focused today and they moved on to the next dive," he added. "We can build on the experience of being here. We have dives to add with increasing degree of difficulty. In building for next year, we can have those early season additions, and work on them all year to build consistency."
In the pool, Albion front loaded its relay and the Britons were leading midway through the heat. Tostado led off with a 1:39.47 split (an Albion school record for the 200-yard freestyle). Bosko followed with a 1:40.89 split to set Belmore up with the lead. The College of New Jersey came back to win the heat in 6:37.02 and finish fifth in the event.
"We decided to put Sebastian up front because we wanted all four guys to be in the race when they dove in," Taber said. "Sebastian had the swim of his life. It was a controlled swim."
Anna Moore completed her first season at the collegiate level with a swim of 57.67 seconds in the preliminary of the 100-yard backstroke.
