GRANVILLE, OH – The Johns Hopkins men's swim team got off to a strong start at the 2022 Denison Invitational Thursday night. The Blue Jays posted three top-three finishes, along with nine NCAA B qualifying times as well as 11 career-best swims.
 
Hopkins opened the meet with a second-place finish and an NCAA B time in the 200 Free Relay. Senior Kyle Wu, freshman Avery Clapp, junior Jay Heymann and senior Ryan Spencer swam a 1:21.57. Junior Kellen Roddy then grabbed third place in the 500 Free with an NCAA B time of 4:26.52. Sophomore Daniel Byrnes won the B Final, and posted a B time, with a career-best time of 4:31.38. Sophomore Eric Ji placed fifth in the B final, also with a career fastest time of 4:33.99.
 
The Blue Jays then placed three swimmers in the A final of the 200 IM. Wu led the Jays with a second-place finish and an NCAA B time of 1:47.25. His time also beat the pool record by 0.25 seconds. Sophomore Joe Castagno followed in third place (1:48.40) and senior Steven Rua placed fifth (1:49.28). Both Castagno and Rua turned in an NCAA B times as well. Freshman Bryce Lloyd finished in a tie for first in the B final as he touched in 1:50.37, an NCAA B time and career best. Spencer followed with a fourth-place finish in the 50 Free with a career best time of 20.71.
 
Hopkins closed out the first day of the invitational with fourth and fifth-place finishes in the 400 Medley Relay. Rua, Wu, Clapp and Ryan swam an NCAA B time of 3:18.30 for fourth place. The team of Lloyd, junior Justin Limberg, sophomore Jonik Surprenant and Heymann finished in 3:19.82 (NCAA B) for fifth place.
 
The Denison Invitational continues on Friday, December 2 with the preliminaries of the 200 Medley Relay at 10:00 am. The finals are slated to begin at 6:00 pm.