Results

CANTON, Ohio – The No. 8 UIndy men's and women's swimming and diving teams left a memorable impression at the conclusion of their final Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships at the C.T. Branin Natatorium. The Greyhounds will compete in the Great Lakes Valley Conference next season.

The women finished in second place behind champion Wayne State with 554.5 points for their best finish since winning the GLIAC Championships in 2005. Freshman Katy Sonksen highlighted the women's performance by being named GLIAC Female Freshman of the Year.

The men took third for the second season in a row with 559.5 points behind champion Wayne State and Grand Valley State. Head coach Gary Kinkead was named co-Dewey Newsome GLIAC Men's Coach of the Year with Sean Peters of Wayne State and Andy Boyce of GVSU. This is the first men's GLIAC coaching honor of his career and the fifth overall as he is a four-time GLIAC Women's Coach of the Year (2002-05).

"I am so incredibly proud of our teams!" Kinkead said. "The efforts were outstanding. The fear of the other teams was non-existent. The mental attitude and toughness has never been better and there was no other team in the GLIAC swimming as well as we are -- as a team -- we are the best, by points, no, but by all of the above -- the BEST!"

Overall, the Greyhounds won nine events over the four days of the event with six by the women and three by the men. Maura Donahue led the way by winning two individual events (1,000 and 200 free) and was part of both winning relays (800 free, 400 free). Sonksen (500 free, 1,650 free) and Dawid Rybinski (500 and 1,000 free) were also multiple event winners.

"It was a great finish to our final night of GLIAC action for this 2013 season and a close of the chapter on UIndy being in the GLIAC Championships," Kinkead said. "I will miss the swimmers from the other schools as well as the coaches from the other schools, the camaraderie in the GLIAC with the coaches and teams is second to none and the relationships formed are everlasting."

Sonksen got the final day started by winning her second event of the championship by winning the 1,650 freestyle in 17:20.76 to give UIndy's its first win in that event since Ellie Miller in 2005.

"What a fantastic performance in the 1,650 for Katy," Kinkead said. "She blew the field away. The runner-up time came in the morning session, so she was just racing against the clock and had to do it all by herself."

The men were also strong in the 1,650 with Adil Assouab taking fourth in 16:10.15 and U.S. Paralympian Dalton Herendeen in eighth in 16:29.92, which were both career best times.

Sarah Griffin took fifth in the 200 back in 2:05.02, while Hannah Schuster was 14th. On the men's side, Justin Rossillo took ninth by winning the consolation final in 1:50.03 and Nir Posner was 12th.

"Sarah had one of the best overall performances of the women with a fantastic ending in the 200 back," Kinkead said.

Maura Donahue continued her outstanding meet by finishing just short of winning the 100 free for the fourth year in a row. She finished second in 51.09 (with her goggles in her mouth the entire race) behind GLIAC Female Swimmer of the Year Carol Azambuja of Wayne State in 50.09. Julia Madeira took fourth in 51.48, while Risa Ricard was 11th and Hayley Good 14th.

Nikolas Aresti was seventh for the men in the 100 free, while Bruno Barbosa and Marius Bornkessel were 12th and 13th.

Muzaffer Demirtas won the consolation final of the 200 breast in 2:05.83 while Michelle Mikaelsson was 10th for the women.

The Greyhounds won again in the men's 200 butterfly as Daniel Chan took the title in 1:48.87. He becomes the fourth Greyhound to win the event and the first since Guy Kogel in 2010. The Hounds also took home points from Justin Lyle in 10th and Zach Laffin in 16th. For the women, Samantha Asencio was seventh and Ana Couto won the consolation final for ninth.

After a break for women's three-meter diving saw Courtney Wilder in 10th, Natelie Tood in 12th and Maria Metaxas in 16th, the meet wrapped with the 400 freestyle relay.

For the second year in a row, the women brought the fireworks as they won the event in back-to-back years and the sixth time in school history. In 2013 it was Madeira, Ricard, Good and Donahue winning in 3:25.69, which was more than 2.5 seconds faster than runner-up Ashland. For Donahue it marked the fourth win of this meet and 12th GLIAC championship of her storied career.

The men also finished strong by setting a new school record in the 400 free relay of 3:01.48 to take second with Rossillo, Bornkessel, Aresti and Barbosa.

"The women put four great splits together to win and the men put together an outstanding performance with all four guys gutting out great swims," Kinkead said. "It was most definitely one of the swims of the meet for the men. A relay is only good if all four put it together and all four were awesome together. Both relays really put it together for themselves and the team."

Both teams will now wait till 5 p.m. on Feb. 20 when the NCAA will officially announce the qualifiers for the 2013 NCAA Championships in Birmingham, Ala. in March.

Day Three Update

"Tonight was another outstanding session for the Greyhounds," Kinkead said. "The women are still in second place and have had an amazing effort. I thought we could have dropped to fifth today and their effort wouldn't allow that to happen."

The day started with Ana Couto taking seventh in the 400 individual medley for the women, while Daniel Chan was fourth in 4:01.71 for the men and Justin Lyle took eighth. Dalton Herendeen also won the consolation final of the 400 IM for the men.

"I thought Ana and Daniel both had excellent performances and finishes for us to get the night started," Kinkead said.

Samantha Asencio took seventh in the 100 fly in 57.88, which then set the stage for the 200 freestyle.

Maura Donahue won her third event of the championship by making it a three-peat in the event with an NCAA "A" cut of 1:49.05 to win by almost two seconds. That time also broke her own GLIAC record in the event. The Greyhounds actually had six swimmers in the final with Risa Ricard (third), Julia Madeira (fourth), Hayley Good (fifth), Sarah Griffin (sixth) and Shiran Abrahamson (eighth) to score 89 points in the event.

The men also performed well in the event as Dawid Rybinski took fourth in 1:40.47 and Marius Bornkessel was sixth in 1:41.56. Muzaffer Demirtas then took fourth in the 100 breast in 56.05.

Griffin came back with more points for the women by placing seventh in the 100 back in 57.55, while Justin Rossillo was fourth for the men in 49.95. The men also went 1-2 in the consolation final with Nir Posner and Bruno Barbosa.

Tyler Offutt took fourth place on the one-meter diving board with 468.80 points, while Avery Schmidt was 11th with 324.80 points as swimming took a break in the action.

The evening concluded with what Kinkead called the "swim of the meet so far" for the Greyhounds in the 400 medley relay as the women set a new school record to finish third in 3:48.29. He inserted Donahue into the relay in the second leg for the breaststroke after Griffin started things off with the back and then closed with Asencio in the fly and Madeira for tha anchor freestyle leg.

The men closed the day by taking fourth in the event in 3:20.60 with Rossillo, Demirtas, Chan and Aaron Stevenson.

Action concludes on Saturday with the prelims at 10:30 a.m. and finals at 5:30 p.m. The last set of events includes the 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1,650 free, women's three-meter diving and the 400 free relay.

Day Two Update

Freshman Katy Sonksen earned her first GLIAC championship by finishing in a time for first in the 500 freestyle in 5:02.94. It was the first title in the event for the Hounds since Ellie Miller in 2005. UIndy added more points in the event as Shiran Abrahamson was third and Hayley Good was seventh.

Dawid Rybinski won his second event of the meet by winning the 500 free in a school record 4:28.99 and Adil Assouab was third, while Marius Bornkessel was 10th. Rybinski becomes the first Greyhound to win the event since Hanno Ahonen won in 2008.

"Those were big points for us to start the evening session for both teams in the 500 free," head coach Gary Kinkead said.

The women took the team lead, 157.5-152.5, over Wayne State after the event.

Michelle Mikaelsson was in second after the breaststroke, but ran out of steam in the freestyle to finish eighth in the 200 individual medley with still a personal best of 2:07.98. On the men's side, Daniel Chan took sixth and Bruno Barbosa was eighth. Justin Rossillo actually had the best time of 1:50.93 to win the consolation final, which would have been third in the final.

"Justin rebounded from a terrible swim in the morning to have a great season best swim in the conso finals," Kinkead said. "That is just proof that you must do it in the morning. Daniel and Bruno had great swims. Daniel in the finals and Bruno in the prelims to get him to the final heat."

Julia Madeira set a personal best of 23.56 to finish third in the 50 free, while Aaron Stevenson was eighth for the men.

In her first GLIAC Championships, freshman Courtney Wilder took third in one-meter diving with 425.05 points, while Natelie Todd added a point by taking 16th.

The day concluded with the men taking second in the 200 free relay with Justin Klopp, Barbosa, Stevenson and Nikolas Aresti in 1:23.13, while the women were third in 1:34.77 with Madeira, Risa Ricard, Good and Maura Donahue.

Day One Update

"The Hounds had an excellent first night," head coach Gary Kinkead said. "I can't remember the last time we had three in the top eight in the women's 1,000 free and then two more in the men's 1000 free. An excellent beginning , especially since we tend to get better as the competition goes along."

The Greyhounds won the opening event of the meet as the women repeated as 800 free relay champions in 7:29.29 with Maura Donahue, Julia Madeira, Shiran Abrahamson and Risa Ricard. That time was just .04 shy of an automatic NCAA "A" qualifying time and the new second-fastest time in the country. Donahue came back later and repeated as champion in the 1,000 free by dominating in 10:10.11, 19 seconds faster than the runner-up . The women added more points in the event as Abrahamson was sixth and Katy Sonksen took seventh.

The women's 200 medley relay swam its best time of the year in 1:46.97 with Sarah Griffin, Michelle Mikaelsson, Samantha Asencio and Risa Ricard.

UIndy kept up its winning ways in the second event of the meet as Dawid Rybinski gave the Greyhounds their first GLIAC championship in the 1,000 free in 9:22.72. Adil Assouab added points in sixth place for UIndy.

Rybinski came back to swim the anchor leg as the 800 free relay set a school record of 6:41.05 in a third-place finish. Marius Bornkessel, Bruno Barbosa and Daniel Chan made up the rest of the quartet.

The men's 200 medley relay of Justin Rossillo, Muzaffer Demirtas, Chan and Aaron Stevenson took fourth in 1:30.27.

The men's three-meter diving was also contested on the first night and Tyler Offutt took third with a score of 472.40 points.