Junior Teddy Pender (Muscat, Oman) earned four All-America awards at this weekend's NCAA Championships, including two individual awards in the 100-yard butterfly and the 100-yard freestyle.
The Bates men scored 27 points to finish in 24th place out of 52 teams, the best national finish in program history.
On the first day of the NCAA Championships, the Bobcat men claimed honorable mention All-America honors with a 12th-place finish of 1:30.69 in the 200 medley relay finals. Junior Riley Ewing (Bedford, N.H.), senior Dan Walpole (Montclair, N.J.), Pender, and junior Jonathan Depew (Hudson, Ohio) broke the team record they set last month at the NESCAC Championships by 0.08 seconds. It was the first career All-America award for both Walpole and Depew, and the third for both Ewing and Pender.
Pender claimed the first individual All-America honor for a Bates male since 1991, one of five top-16 performances by the Bobcat men's and women's swim teams on an eventful second day of the NCAA Division III Championships.
Pender swam his morning trial in the 100-yard butterfly in 49.19 seconds, 0.04 off of the team record held by Matt Gagne, to claim the 15th spot in Thursday evening's finals. There he placed 16th in 49.25 seconds, to become the first Bates male individual All-American since Dave Collins went top 16 in the 200 breaststroke in 1991.
The Bates men's team also picked up All-America honors for its four-athlete contingent in the 400-yard medley relay, where the Bobcats placed 13th in the finals with a time of 3:19.86, following a trials time of 3:19.84. Ewing led off in the backstroke leg, followed by Walpole in the breaststroke, Pender in the butterfly and Depew in the freestyle. It was the fifth career All-America honor for Pender, the fourth for Ewing and the second in as many days for Walpole and Depew.
On the final day of the NCAA Championships, Pender took 11th place in the men's 100-yard freestyle and broke his own team record in the process. Pender was 14th after trials with a time of 45.00 seconds; in the finals, his 44.72 seconds took 0.11 seconds off the Bates record he established a month ago at the NESCAC Championships, and earned him 11th place, his second individual All-America honor of the meet and the sixth All-America honor of his career.
