Dunscomb, 21, of Sullivan, Ill., collapsed during swim practice Wednesday and died a short time later. The cause of his death was unknown. The Douglas County coroner made a brief examination Wednesday night and planned a complete autopsy for yesterday.
"We thought he was having an asthma attack when he got out of the pool," said Kostaki Chiligiris, Dunscomb's teammate at Kansas. "When he got out he just lay on his back. And then he died, right there at the pool."
Kansas coaches and emergency medical personnel tried to revive Dunscomb, a 1993 graduate of Sullivan High School. But he was pronounced dead at 5 p.m. at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
Chiligiris said Dunscomb had blacked out in the pool once before during swim practice this season, before Winter break. But he had been cleared by doctors to continue swimming, Chiligiris said.
"He was in such great shape and he was so strong. He was a Division I athlete, he had to be in great shape," Chiligiris said. "He had a month left to swim, and he would have been fine. He would never have had to exercise like that again."
Dunscomb was majoring in mechanical engineering at Kansas.
At Sullivan, Dunscomb excelled in both track and field and swimming. But it was in swimming that he had his greatest success, winning a state title in the 200-yard individual medley in 1993 in an Illinois record time of 1 minute, 51.81 seconds.
Kansas canceled its scheduled swim meet at Iowa on Friday.
Funeral arrangements were pending.