Sunday concluded one of the most successful careers in the history of Binghamton University athletics.

David Holmes, a senior on the men’s swimming and diving team, finished out the weekend and his career with three top-30 finishes at the NCAA Swimming and Diving championships at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.

Holmes, who was the first male swimmer in Binghamton and America East history to be selected for the tournament, competed among the strongest field of 66 in the nation. The field included nationally recognized swimmers Larsen Jensen of the University of South California and Shaun Phillips from Stanford.

At the championships, Holmes competed in the 500-free, 200-butterfly and the 200-free. The British torpedo concluded the weekend with three top-30 times and finished just shy of being named an All-American. He began the weekend in strong fashion, finishing in 27th place in the 500-free with a time of 4:23.81.

‘It’s the fastest he’s swam at a prelim,’ said swimming and diving head coach Sean Clark.

The standout senior went on to finish in 22nd place in the 200-free and .54 seconds out of a top-16 finish, which would have given Holmes All-American honors. To wrap up the weekend, he finished in 26th place in the 200-butterfly with a time 1:47.36. His finish in the 200-butterfly was unexpected, four slots ahead of his pre-race seed.

‘He’s the best swimmer Binghamton has ever seen,’ Clark said. ‘It’s a coach’s dream to have even one athlete of his caliber in his career.’

Holmes is the third BU swimmer to head to this meet joining female swimmers Yun Qu and Huijue Cal, in 2002 and 2003 respectively.

The list of honors continues to grow, as Holmes also leaves Binghamton with school records in five individual events and as a member of three relay events. He also captured the Most Outstanding Swimmer award at both the America East and the East Coast Athletic championships.

Throughout the season Holmes’ leadership has been of great importance to the Bearcats. After the transfer of Olympian and former BU swimmer Kaan Tayla to Virginia Tech, Holmes stepped up as a leader on the squad. Along with co-captains Brian Koizim and Trevor Stone, Binghamton finished in an unexpected second place at the America East tournament.

More important than any individual honor, Holmes, Koizim and Stone have helped many of the younger swimmers, such as Brenno Varanda and Brian Koralewski, to mature and stand out.

‘I don’t want them to leave,’ Clark said; he will be losing a considerable amount of firepower to graduation this season.

Despite this, the accomplishments of these three senior have built a solid foundation for BU swimming to continue to prosper, which may be their greatest accolade of all.