MINNEAPOLIS - Led by a school-record performance in the morning preliminaries, the Puget Sound Loggers took fifth in the championship final of the men's 200m Medley Relay at the 2009 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday evening at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, Minn.

In the morning prelims, the relay team of Garrett Gentling (Shoreline, Wash./Shorewood), Paul Hughes (Ruston, Wash./Curtis), Jackson Kowalski (Keizer, Ore./McNary) and Bret Schluederberg (Chapel Hill, N.C.) won their heat with a time of 1:30.81.  That smashed the school-record time of 1:32.00 that they had established at the Northwest Conference Championships in February.

In the finals, the Loggers found themselves in eighth place in the backstroke portion of the relay but they fought their way back, edging out Wisconsin Stevens Point for fifth place with a finals time of 1:30.83.  National power Kenyon College set a new NCAA Division III record in the event, winning the title with a time of 1:28.45.  By virtue of their qualifying for the championship final, all four Loggers have earned All-American honors.  Making it even more special for the Loggers, Puget Sound head coach Chris Myhre presented the championship awards for the event.

The NCAA DIII Championships continue on Thursday, with preliminaries set for 10:00 a.m. CDT and finals scheduled for 5:30 p.m. CDT.

Results