HAMPTON, Va. – The TCNJ men's swimming team continued to separate from the rest of the NJAC Championship field on Saturday night, claiming three individual titles and a relay crown to expand their team lead to nearly 400 points.
 
Ryan Higgins, Joe McChesney, and Ryan VanDeVeen all won individual gold medals for the Lions, who ran their team tally to 1163 points – almost 400 clear of Merchant Marine (766) in second. Salisbury (751) is third, with Rowan (611) a distant fourth.
 
All four championship performances were among the many NCAA B-cut times recorded in another dominant display, and Andrew Kidchob put the cherry on top by breaking his own program record in the 100 back.
 
TOP PERFORMANCES
 
400 IM

• Higgins blew away the field with a blazing swim, finishing in 3:51.95 to clear teammate Gavin Formon by close to five seconds. The time is good for 5^th in all of Division III, and Formon already owns the 8^th-best national mark at 3:54.35 from the TCNJ Invitational
• Pablo Salazar placed fifth with a career-best 3:59.43, good for a top-30 national mark, and Noah Serrano took eighth at 4:07.27

100 FLY

• McChesney turned heads in the 100 fly, grabbing his first career individual conference title with a personal-best 48.48, touching the wall .06 seconds ahead of USMMA's Daniel Scherrer. The rookie's time is an NCAA B-cut and tied for 15^th in Division III.
• Kidchob placed seventh (50.11), and Jonah Stein took eighth (50.14)

100 BREAST

• VanDeVeen matched his own program record with a dominant performance in the 100 breast, completing the race in 54.39 seconds to surpass Mary Washington's Sam Rountree by more than three-quarters of a second. His mark is good for 10^th in Division III this season
• Tyler McGeehan was terrific, placing third in a personal-best 55.23 seconds. That's a B-cut time that ranks 22^nd in the country.
• Dylan Negron (56.04) and Shawn Kushner (56.30) took sixth and seventh, respectively

100 BACK

• Kidchob eclipsed his own school record by a hundredth of a second, finishing in 49.20 seconds to take second behind Rowan's Jack Watson and post a B-Cut that ranks 29^th in Division III
• Andrew Walter placed fifth at 50.69 and Bradley Frank was eighth at 52.13

200 FREE

• Steven Bendoraitis came within a whisker of winning the 200 free, finishing in 1:39.25 to fall just .07 ticks back of Rowan's Toby Cahnbley. Still, Bendoraitis' time is good for eighth in program history and an NCAA B-cut that places him 22^nd in the nation
• Keilan Moran placed fourth in 1:41.19, while Brian Bull (1:41.86) and M.J. Hoban (1:42.69) landed in seventh and eighth, respectively

GOLDEN RELAY

• One night removed from winning the 400 medley relay, the fast foursome of Kidchob, VanDeVeen, McChesney, and Hoban made it a double by taking the 200 medley relay title. They finished in 1:28.56, an NCAA B-cut that ranks 10^th in Division III, and outpaced runner-up Rowan by .65 seconds

UP NEXT

• The NJAC Championship wraps up Sunday, getting underway at 9:30 a.m. with prelims in the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, and 200 fly as well as timed finals in the 1650 free and trials of the 400 free relay