Two national championship performances highlighted yet another
top ten performance by the Hope College men's swimming team at
the NCAA Division III championships held March 18-20 at the
University of Minnesota.

Coach John Patnott's Dutchmen finished ninth in a field of 50
teams that scored in the 25th annual championship meet. It is the
eighth time in nine years that the Dutchmen have been a top ten
team.

With 117 points, the Flying Dutchmen finished ahead of MIAA rival
Kalamazoo which ended tenth with 104 points.

Highlighting the meet were the performances of freshman Josh Boss
of Jenison (Jenison HS) who captured the gold medal in the 100-
yard and 200-yard breaststroke in national record time.

The Flying Dutchmen also had All-America performances in two
relays, finishing fourth in the 200-yard medley relay and fifth
in the 400-yard medley relay.

Boss defeated the defending national champion in winning the 100-
yard breaststroke. Aaron Cole of Denison set a new national
record in the prelims (:54.88) while Boss was timed in :55.12.
The record belonged to Boss in the finals. The swimmers were
dead-even after 25 meters. Boss gained a slight edge after 50
meters, but Cole caught him at 75 meters and the swimmers were
stroke-for-stroke heading off the last turn.

Boss hit at the wall in a record time of :54.69 while Cole was
timed in :54.72. His performance also qualifies him for the 2000
Olympic trials.

When it came time for the 200-yard breaststroke, the Hope
freshman picked up where he left off in the 100. Boss erased the
oldest mark in the DIII record book with a time of 2:00.70. The
previous mark of 2:01.33 went back to 1983. The ink wasn't even
dry in the record book when it came time for the finals and it
was a good thing as Boss won by nearly two second time with a
time of 2:00.53.

The All-America medley relays accomplished their fetes with
school-record performances. Each relay was comprised of
sophomore Chris Dattels of Wilmette, Ill. (New Trier HS), Boss,
junior Tom Bouwens of Zeeland (Zeeland HS), and junior Jarod
Lippert of Alma (Alma HS). The fourth place 400-yard medley
relay was clocked in 3:23.70 while the fifth place 200-yard
medley relay was timed in 1:32.62.

The Flying Dutchmen had three honorable mention All-America
performances. The 200-yard freestyle relay won the consolation
finals and finished ninth overall (1:24.63) with a team of
sophomore Joshua Ficke of Etiwanda, Calif. (Etiwanda HS), Boss,
Dattels and Lippert.

Dattels also an honorable mentioned All-America as he won the
consolation finals in the 100-yard backstroke and finished ninth
overall with a school record time of :51.55.He later finished
21st in the 200-yard backstroke with a season-best time of
1:54.94.

The 400-yard freestyle relay finished 15th (3:09.07) with a team
of Lippert, Ficke, Boss and Dattels.

Ficke compete in two individual events, finishing 35th in the
100-yard freestyle (:47.76) and 43rd in the 50-yard freestyle
(:21.81).

Six school records were established during the season. In
addition to the five marks set at nationals, Lippert set a mark
in the winning the MIAA championship in the 100-yard butterfly
(:51.78).

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