Senior Teddy Pender earned five All-America honors at the 2018 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. He finishes his Bates career with 11 All-Americas, including three in individual events. The 11 All-Americas are the most by a male athlete in college history, surpassing 10-time All-America track and field star David Pless.
The Bates men's 200 medley relay team, comprising senior Riley Ewing (Bedford, N.H.) in the backstroke, junior Alex Bedard (Amherst, N.H.) in the breast, Pender (Muscat, Oman) in the butterfly and senior Jonathan Depew (Hudson, Ohio) in the freestyle, swam their trial in 1:31.09, the 11th-fastest time out of 23 teams -- four places better than their 15th seeding. Bates' foursome went under that time by 0.28 seconds in the consolation final, at 1:30.81 -- 0.20 seconds behind 11th-place Calvin and 0.74 ahead of 13th-place Coast Guard.
Bates' men's 400 medley relay team -- Ewing in the backstroke, Bedard in the breast, Pender in the butterfly and sophomore Tanner Fuller (Wellington, Fla.) in the freestyle -- swam the 13th-fastest time out of 21 squads in morning trials, at 3:20.13. In Thursday night's consolation final, the Bobcats finished second only to Kenyon at 3:19.34 to claim 10th place overall, 1.48 seconds ahead of 11th-place Williams.
The Bates men set the team record in the 800 free relay with the sixth-fastest time in Friday morning trials, finishing in 6:46.02 to guarantee at least a 14th-place finish overall. Bedard led off, followed by Fuller, Depew and Pender, who passed two swimmers on his anchor leg with a split time of 1:39.63. Bates finished 0.08 seconds ahead of 15th-place Rowan.
4. A day after they became the Bates men's team's first-ever freestyle relay All-Americans in the 800 free relay, Fuller, Depew, Bedard and Pender claimed 14th place in the 400 freestyle relay and broke two team records in the process.
The quartet finished their trial in a season-best 3:03.61, 15th-fastest out of 25 squads, to qualify for the consolation final. There they recorded a time of 3:03.07, sixth-fastest in the consolation final, going under the former team record of 3:03.25 established by Pender, Mike Connolly, Ewing and Jack Dina in 2016.
Pender and Fuller switched roles in the final, so Pender swam the leadoff leg and gave Bates the lead a quarter of the way through, as he broke his own team record for the 100-yard freestyle with a split time of 44.54 seconds, breaking the former record of 44.72 he established at NCAAs in 2017.
Pender also swam a season-best time and earned another Honorable Mention All-America honor in the 100-yard freestyle in his final collegiate individual race, finishing fourth in the consolation final and in 12th place overall with a time of 44.77 seconds. Pender had the 11th-fastest time in trials, at 44.83.
