By Justin Jennings

Well here we go, with the last prelims of the 2008 Division III National Championships in the book the finals are shaping up to be… well much like the last two days FAST.  Tonight we see seven different schools with the top seed (come on now don’t hate on diving).  We’ll see Denison and Johns Hopkins fighting it out for the number two spot.  Nelson Westbey and Pavel Buyanov will be bringing out the fisticuffs for breaststroke supremacy.  And is this the day that the Born Supremacy goes down, can Josh Mitchell break the oldest national record?

Emory’s Keith Diggs brings in the top seed in the 1650 tonight.  The question is going to be, is that enough for Diggs to hold on in order to pick up the second title in as many days?  It won’t be if teammate Nick Lake has anything to do with it.  The Emory duo will be battling each other from lanes four and five when the action gets underway tonight.  But don’t count out Coast Guard’s Bobby Brown.  Is the senior from New York going to be singing ‘It’s My Prerogative’ all the way to becoming ‘King of Stage’?  Who knows we could even see a dark horse take it from the afternoon heats.  It isn’t like it hasn’t been done before.

In the 200 backstroke JHU’s John Thomas looks to be the favorite coming into tonight’s finals being the only man sub 1:50.  But don’t count out the cagey senior from Kenyon, Tom Irgens.  If he takes the race out in the first hundred like he is capable there is going to be a real battle tonight.  Let’s not forget about Union’s Kevin Kewin and Kenyon’s Michael Mpitos.  After tying this morning the two supine specialists will look to outflank the morning’s top seeds on their way to way to a huge upset.

The 100 freestyle may be the second most exciting event of the night.  The 100 backstroke national champion is going to be in lane four.  The 200 freestyle runner-up is going to be in lane five.  And Division III’s fastest man alive will look to apply that top end speed in search of his second national title of the meet.  But don’t be so hasty to forget about senior sprinter from Johns Hopkins Brad Test.  Sitting in the four seed and only 23/100 of a second down he will for sure be testing his skills for that elusive national championship.  And in a meet that has already seen two of the fastest records on the books taken down you have to wonder if James Born can make it 23 in a row.  Division III’s oldest record on the books could be in real jeopardy tonight if these guys party like it’s 1999.

“If you can change… I can change… We all can change!” The cold war heats up tonight as Nelson Westby looks to avenge his 1/100 loss in the 100 breaststroke to the Staten Island freshman in what some call the hardest event in all of college swimming.  Westby might have the advantage in the fast lane after he was the sole swimmer under two minutes this morning.  The junior from Oregon looked like a migrant worker running from the border patrol, on a mission and unstoppable as he dashed through his 200.  But don’t overlook Buyanov, his last 50 of the 200 this morning looked like Takeru Kobayashi on the Fourth of July just pounding those dogs like it was his job.  If we see anything like we did last night JB might just be in jeopardy of losing his last record on the books.

John Dillon returns the fastest qualifying time in the 200 butterfly.  The Panther sophomore will be on the prowl like a frat boy at a kegger as he looks to be the strongest chance for a Middlebury title.  But don’t count out the bovines from the northeast.  The senior Williams tag team of Chris Millen and Alex Ping-Wentworth are as poised as the dynamic duo ready to WHAM KAPOW BLAM their NESCAC rival right out of Gotham City.  And when the four through eight seeds are only separated by a half a second it could turn out to be anyone’s race.

Here comes the Marcoussis - Paris Champs-Elysees of the meet, the final relay of the year and it’s anyone’s guess as to who gets to take home the hardware.   Denison brings back the top seed looking like the only relay to break three minutes tonight.  Johns Hopkins brings the only on paper threat to challenge Denison tonight after the psych sheet favorites post the second fastest time of the morning.  NYU, Amherst, and DePauw all look to get in the mix with just 12/100 of a second separating this trio.  And then there was the ‘Dark Horse’, the lonely Lords find themselves in a position they are not accustom to with the sixth seed looking to move up.

Ok I get it… same old stuff and too many similes.  But trust me when I tell you that tonight’s meet could shape up to be the most exciting day of all.  Will Kenyon go on to win their 29th title overall… yes I’m pretty sure there is no suspense there.  But who will be number two?  Will we see seven national champions from seven different schools?  Time will tell.  Signing off from the home of Khashyar Darvich, look him up, check back with us tonight for the exciting conclusion of the 2008 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving National Championships.