No. 25 Men's Swim/Dive Starts MIAA Championships with School-Record 800 Freestyle Relay

Hope trails meet leader Calvin by just two points

The 25th-ranked Hope College men's swimming and diving team opened the MIAA Championships in record-setting fashion on Wednesday.

The Flying Dutchmen set a school record in the 800-yard freestyle relay by clocking a second-place swim of 6 minutes, 36.48 seconds at Calvin University. The NCAA Division III B cut is the eighth-fastest time in the nation this season.

The performance from sophomore Graham Eisenmann (Ozark, Missouri / Ozark HS), senior Conner Halberg (Novi, Michigan / Northville), freshman Joe Engle (Holland, Michigan / West Ottawa) and freshman Everett Cox (Sugar Land, Texas / Logos Prep) helped Hope to total 56 points during Day 1 of the four-day meet.

The Flying Dutchmen trail No. 7 Calvin by two points. Hope is ahead of third-place Kalamazoo College (48), Albion College (44) and Alma College (40).

The MIAA Championships resume on Thursday, Feb. 20, at 10 a.m. with preliminaries. Finals start at 5 p.m. The meet at Venema Aquatic Center runs through Saturday, Feb. 22, with two sessions daily.

Hope's 800 freestyle relay eclipsed the 2024 school record of 6:40.28 set by Ben Catton, Henry Booker, Bailey Smith and Halberg. The Flying Dutchmen finished runner-up to Calvin's first-place 6:33.26.

In the B relay, Hope also picked up valuable points by rallying over the final 25 yards to beat Calvin.

Freshman Josh Bordovsky (Herdon, Virginia / South Lakes), senior Dallas Fisher (Highland, Michigan / Detroit Catholic Central) and Booker (Hudsonville, Michigan / Hudsonville) went 6:44.41 and edged Calvin by nine-tenths of a second.

Head coach Jake Taber was thrilled with both relays' performances.

Eisenmann broke the school record with a 200 split of 1:37.90 in the A relay, surpassing Ben Catton's 2024 mark of 1:38.91. The time ranks sixth in Division III this season.

Booker closed the B relay with a 1:40.52 split which was 1.35 seconds faster than his Calvin counterpart.

"We debated back and forth how to put together the relays," Taber said. "We believe our greatest strength is our depth. We had a number of options. We felt like this was the best A relay we could put out there, but also had a great opportunity with the last relay.

"It's really easy to anchor Henry Booker. He's got big meet experience. He knows how to swim the 200. The moment is not too big for him. He swam within himself and executed a brilliant 200. He gave the guys so much energy. It was a great swim."

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