GREENSBORO, NC – Junior Kellen Roddy won his second straight national championship in the 1650 freestyle and the Johns Hopkins men's swimming team earned 72 points on the fourth and final day of the 2023 NCAA Division III Men's Swimming Championships to finish with 217 points and place fourth in the final team standings.
 
Emory won the team title with 532 points and was followed by Kenyon (495.5 points), Chicago (318), Johns Hopkins and Williams (214.5).  The fourth-place showing marks the sixth consecutive top five finish for the Blue Jays, who placed second in 2022 and fourth each year from 2016 through 2019.  The 2020 and 2021 NCAA Championships were canceled due to the COVID pandemic.
 
Roddy and Mason Kelber of Washington-St. Louis alternated holding the lead through the first 900 yards of the 1650 before Roddy took the lead for good after making the turn at the 900-yard mark.  He slowly built his lead from there, extending out to a three-second advantage at 1,100 yards and five seconds at 1,300 yards before cruising home with a winning time of 15:15.86; he won by nearly four seconds as Kelber touched in 15:19.50.

Roddy's victory marks the eighth time that Johns Hopkins has produced the national champion in the 1650 free.  He joins Johns Hopkins Hall of Famers Tim Collins and Mike Leonhardt as a multiple time winner of the event; Collins won the event three straight times (1978-80), while Leonhardt grabbed gold in 1981 and 1983.
 

In addition to the 20 points Roddy earned with his first-place finish in the 1650, the Blue Jays grabbed 24 points in the 200 backstroke, 16 in the 200 breaststroke and 12 in the 400 free relay.
 
In the 200 back, freshman Avery Clapp placed sixth to earn 13 points as he set a school record by touching home in 1:45.37.  Clapp was the only freshman among the eight participants in the finals; senior Steven Rua placed eighth in a time of 1:47.39 to grab 11 points.

The Blue Jays went 10-12-13 in the consolation final of the 200 breast to earn 16 crucial points.  Kyle Wu (10^th / 1:58.29), Joe Castagno (12^th / 1:59.24) and Brandon Stride (13^th / 1:59.46) all grabbed All-America honors with their top 16 finishes in the event.
 
Johns Hopkins then entered the final event of the championship – the 400 free relay – trailing Williams by 3.5 points (208.5 – 205) in the race for fourth place in the team standings.  The Blue Jay team of Wu, Clapp, Jay Heymann and Spencer Ryan needed to win the consolation final or finish at least two spots ahead of Williams to lock down fourth-place.  Hopkins would touch in 3:00.23 to place 11^th overall (third in the consolation final), while the Ephs finished 14^th with a time of 3:00.77 to give the Blue Jays the 2.5-point margin in the final team standings.
 
This is the 26^th time Johns Hopkins has placed in the top four at the NCAA Championships and the 31^st time the Blue Jays have placed in the top five.