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Cromwell looks to end his career with a lucky seventh All-America performance in Saturday's 200 back. |
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March 24, 2006
ATLANTA - Three weeks after becoming the first Eastern Intercollegiate Swimming League athlete to break the 47-second mark in the 100-yard backstroke, Harvard senior David Cromwell knocked nearly a fifth of a second off his team and league record to tie for fourth place in the event with a mark of 46.80 at the NCAA Championships at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center.
Cromwell earned his fourth individual All-America honor and his sixth overall. He placed 15th in the event last season. His fourth-place finish this year was Harvard's best in the 100 back since David Berkoff '89 won the national title in his senior season with a time of 47.02. That mark held up as the fastest in league history until Cromwell's 46.99 at the EISL Championships.
The senior turned it on after posting a 50-yard time of 22.88, passing two swimmers and making up a quarter of a second in the second half of the race to tie Indiana's Ben Hesen. Matt Grievers of Northwestern won the race in 45.93.
Sophomore Geoff Rathegeber swam the 400 individual medley, placing 24th in 3:51.96.
Both swimmers are back in action Saturday, the meet's final day. Cromwell will race the 200 back, and Rathgeber is slated to race in the 200 breaststroke. Preliminaries are scheduled for noon, with finals at 7 p.m.