Marius Kusch Lowers Own NCAA D2 Record in 100 Free with 42.29

Bluegrass Mountain Conference/ Conference Carolinas Championships – Men and Women

• Dates: Wednesday, February 6-Saturday, February 9, 2019
• Location: Mecklenburg County Aquatic Center – Charlotte, NC
• Defending Champions: BMC – Queens women (3x); Queens men (3x)/CC – Barton women (results)
• Live results on Meet Mobile: “Bluegrass Mtn and Conference Carolinas Champs”
• Live video (finals only): Available here
• Championship Central
• CC teams: Barton (M&W). Converse College (W), Chowan (M&W), King (M&W), Emmanuel (M&W), Lees-McRae (M&W)
• BMC teams: Carson Newman (M&W), Lenoir-Rhyne College (M&W), Queens University (M&W), Salem University (M&W), Savannah College of A&D (M&W), Wingate University (M&W). Catawba College (M&W), Mars Hill (M&W)

Queens University of Charlotte senior Marius Kusch continued his record-breaking streak with a 42.29 to win the 100 free on the final day of competition at the 2019 Bluegrass Mountain Conference Championships. Kusch broke the BMC meet record of 43.38 (set by Limestone’s Craig Jordens in 2009) in prelims with 42.85. In finals, he dropped another .56 to lower his hours-old meet mark, and take a .15 bite out of the NCAA Division II record at the same time. Kusch had set the NCAA record at the 2018 Division II Championships, going 42.42 in finals.

Kusch’s swim is the 9th-fastest performance in the 100 free this season:

1. 41.06 Tate Jackson, Texas Hall of Fame Swimming
2. 41.82 Michael Chadwick, 2018 Trojan Swimming Invite
3. 41.92 Dean Farris, Men’s Harvard-Yale-Princeton
4. 41.94 Robert Howard, 2018 Georgia Tech Fall Invite
5. 42.10 Michael Jensen, UGA Fall Invitational 2018
6. 42.15 Drew Kibler, Texas Hall of Fame Swimming
7. 42.25 Zach Apple, 2018 IU Invitational
8. 42.27 Townley Haas, Texas Hall of Fame Swimming
9. 42.29 Marius Kusch, 2018 BMC Championships
10. 42.30 Mikel Schreuders, 2018 Mizzou Invitational

Much like his 100 fly, in which he broke the NCAA D2 record on Friday, Kusch continues to improve the front half of his race. It will be interesting to see how he swims the race when fully-rested at the NCAA Division II Championships in March.