Swimming and Diving Earns Highest National Rating in Program Historical past

ELKHART, Ind. — The Ave Maria Swimming and Diving staff concluded the season with their finest ever end on the NAIA National Championships in program historical past. The males’s staff completed in 12^th place and the ladies completed in 26^th. The two groups mixed for a 15^th place end as a program.

The spotlight of the weekend was Sam Pilkington qualifying for the A Final within the 100-yard breaststroke, the primary ever A-Final in program historical past. In the preliminaries, Pilkington logged the fourth quickest time with a private better of 54.03 seconds. In the ultimate, the redshirt senior positioned sixth with a time of 54.17 seconds, the best particular person end in class historical past. Pilkington was additionally named an All-American for qualifying for the A-final, changing into the primary ever Gyrene to take action as nicely.

The males’s 200 freestyle relay additionally earned All-American recognitions by inserting eighth with a time of 1:23.81. The staff consisted of Pilkington, Michael Blawas, Elijah Brown and Eli Soderberg. The Gyrenes beat out ninth place Morningside by three tenths of a second to earn All-American standing.

The Gyrenes had three extra finishes within the B Finals all through the weekend. Blawas completed 12^th within the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:50.05. The sophomore rose three spots and improved his time by 0.22 seconds.

Brown and Soderberg each certified for the B Final within the 400-yard particular person medley. Soderberg completed 12^th with a time of 4:02.54 whereas Brown rounded out the group with a time of 4:08.64.

Pilkington’s, Blawas’, Soderberg’s and the relay staff’s time had been all new faculty data set in Indiana. The Gyrenes broke three extra data within the championships. Matt Ondracek set the brand new report for the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:52.28, Pilkington broke the report for the 50-yard freestyle in his opening swim through the relay race with a time of 21.22 seconds and Lucas Thomaz set the brand new low time for the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.90 seconds.

The girls’s staff confronted a more durable meet within the Hoosier State however nonetheless had some sturdy swims. Gabby Darakcheiva had the very best particular person end inserting 21^st within the 100-yard backstroke. Delaney Weisbruch positioned 24^th within the 200-yard particular person medley, the 200-yard butterfly and 400-yard particular person medley. The 200 IM was a season finest for her. Mimi Estrada was the ultimate swimmer for the Gyrenes with a 28^th end in each the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly.

With the conclusion of the National Championships, the Gyrenes shut the e-book one of the vital profitable seasons in this system’s younger historical past.