BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The UIndy swimming & diving teams ended the most challenging of seasons Saturday night with an impressive finish at the NCAA DII Championships, held at the Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala. The Greyhound women added two more event titles to their list of accomplishments this week while setting a program record for highest finish at Nationals. Both Greyhound squads claimed team hardware, as both recorded third-place finishes.
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The UIndy women scored 391 points to take third place among DII's best, while the men total 369 points to claim its third consecutive third-place finish at the national meet. All told, the Greyhounds combined for program-record 64 All-America First Team nods and four event championships at the four-day event.
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"It was a fun week," admitted head coach
Jason Hite. "It was a crazy week because nobody knew what would happen next – with the weather, with COVID. But we made it through. We're going to bring home two trophies, which is something we've never been able to do, and we're glad to do that for (Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics) Scott (Young) and (University President) Dr. Manuel and all the people that helped us to get through this season, which was a rollercoaster of a ride."
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Heading into the meet, the UIndy women had yet to win an event championship, while combined, the men's and women's teams had not won more than three events in any single national meet. Both notions were in need of updating after this week, as the Greyhounds captured national championships in four events, all on the women's side: the 200 IM, 200 back, 200 free relay and 400 free relay.
HOUND BYTES
More thoughts from Coach Hite...
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Krystal Caylor, what an amazing leader. She just got out of COVID protocols on Wednesday and to anchor multiple relays, two of them that were national champions, that just says a lot about who she is. When we recruited Krystal, the whole thing was 'we're going to build a powerhouse team around you.' And I promised her that we would have this kind of caliber team before she left, and she helped that become a reality this weekend."
"On the men's side, to bring that group of men and have as many of those guys go through the ringer in the last three weeks, and to have to leave one of our seniors at home too in Cody (Liske), to have them still come out and battle and get third place, and really perform when we had to; this morning our prelims swims were incredible and we had to have those in order to get third place as a team. They just continue to keep laying down great performances and be resilient and just really come through hen it matters.
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Jeron Thompson... he's just incredible. He led off two relays after good individual performances, not quite as good as he wanted, and then to lead off both relays with school records in the 50 free and the 100 free. He's just a special guy.
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"And for Jan (Zuchowicz) to have good leadership, and Victor (Antonon) with just an all-around great job. The distance guys, they were hit the hardest by COVID and to come through, it was just really really cool."
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SATURDAY
Kaitlyn McCoy capped an outstanding meet by winning the women's 200 backstroke with a time of 1:56.39. The Boise State transfer racked up a combined seven top-four finishes for the meet, scoring 69 points individually and contributing to another 94 spread across three relays.
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"We talked about it all year long since she transferred here," said Hite about McCoy and the 200 back, "and to see her actually do it was really cool, and to have her brother (assistant coach
Ryan McCoy) on the staff made it a little extra special as well."
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The final day also included a relay national championship for the Hounds, as
Johanna Buys,
Marizel van Jaarsveld,
Leticia Vaselli and
Krystal Caylor won the final women's event, the 400 free relay, with a school-record time of 3:19.98. The result marked the second relay title for the UIndy women, who also won the 200 free relay on Thursday.
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"The highlights on the women's side were the two relay national championship teams," Hite acknowledged, "and obviously finishing the last relay and winning that was a great way to top off a really difficult season."
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The opening leg of both 400 free relays featured record-breaking swims, as both Buys (49.82) and
Jeron Thompson (43.61) set new school benchmarks in the 100 free. The former improved on a mark that heading into this year had stood since 2011 as one of the oldest records in the UIndy annals.
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Saturday also saw a pair of events yield two top-eight swims from the Hounds. Van Jaarsveld and Buys placed fourth and sixth, respectively, in the women's 100 free, while
Landon Driggers and
Andras Tiszai also went 4-6 in the men's 200 back.
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Meanwhile, the UIndy divers continued their recent run of success on the national stage. Four Hounds put their talents on display Saturday, led by a runner-up performance from
Cade Hammond on the men's 1-meter. Teammate
Jason Lenzo also garnered All-America First Team accolades with a fourth-place finish on the 1-meter, as did
Mikaela Starr on the women's 3-meter with her seventh-place showing.
Benjamin Rader, who was runner-up on the men's 3-meter board earlier in the week, finished 13th on the 1-meter to claim second-team honors.
FRIDAY
The Greyhounds continued their trek among the best in the nation, crowing 10 All-Americans on day three alone while also breaking two school records on the women's side. The men finished the third day sitting at fifth overall with 233 points, the women currently ranked fourth overall with their 284 points.
The top placing of the night came in the form of a silver medal, the women's 800 free relay team touching the wall at a school-record time of 7:21.54. The team of Kaitlyn McCoy, Leticia Vaselli, Marizel van Jaarsveld and Krystal Caylor outpaced third-place Lindenwood by over four seconds, the Hounds dropping over a second and a half from their entry time in the meet. Van Jaarsveld continued her dominance in Division II with another piece of hardware to her name, later placing third overall in the women's 200 fly. The South Africa native broke her own school record with her 1:58.98 finish, being the only student-athlete inside the event's top three to split a sub-31 second final lap.
The ladies wouldn't be the only team to get hardware on Friday, as sophomore Christian Hedeen collected his first individual honor in the men's 500 free to start the Hounds' races for the day. Hedeen ended the race at third overall on his 4:23.28 time, but wasn't the only Hound to earn an All-American spot in the event. Sebastian Wenk ended the prelims session at seventh overall in the 500 free, but jolted up two spots for fifth overall on a 4:24.70 final time. McCoy would be the final Greyhound to end in the meet's top-four on day three, garnering a fourth-place finish in the women's 100 back at a :54.18 time.
Mikaela Starr led the diving crew on Friday, reaching to a 428.50-point total on the women's 3-meter board in order to make her way into the event's top-eight. The Australian native went out on Friday night to best her prelim score by almost 16 points, sneaking up one place at sixth on a final score of 444.40 points. Jan Zuchowicz would be the final Individual All-America on the day, the senior's 54.01 final time ranked him sixth in the event and garnered him another DII honor. The Greyhounds' handed out four more All-America honors in the men's 800 free relay, each leg of the relaying swimming a sub-1:40 on their way to seventh overall. The team led off with Hedeen to start, then moved into Grant Largen, Wenk and anchored with Victor Antonon Rodriguez for a 6:35.88 time.
The UIndy swimming & diving teams will take on the final day of the NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday, featuring student-athletes in the men's and women's 100 free, 200 back, men's 200 breast, men's and women's mile, 400 free relays and men's 1-meter diving. The final day is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m. ET.
THURSDAY
Marizel van Jaarsveld squeezed Kaitlyn McCoy in her arms. Joy filled both of their faces. Not only a gold and a silver, but van Jaarsveld had just made history. She just had become the first ever female national champion for the Greyhound swimming & diving squad, taking the school record with a 1:57.84 in the 200 IM and earning the her spot on top of the podium at the CrossPlex in Birmingham, Ala., with McCoy also earning a silver and standing next to her.
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The Hounds didn't stop there. Day two of the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships included a second national title for the UIndy women, as
Johanna Buys,
Leticia Vaselli,
Krystal Caylor, and
Isabela Revstedt combined for the 200 free relay title with a school-record time of 1:30.92.
Through nine events, the UIndy women have racked up 206 points and trail only Queens (314.5 pts) and GLVC-rival Drury (232) in the team standings. The Greyhonds men sit in in fifth with 161 points.
A number of other school records fell Thursday, Buys set a record in the 50 free after setting a lifetime best, 22.84, while also earning her a silver, and later rebreaking that mark in the opening leg of the aforementioned 200 free relay (22.82).
McCoy earned second and broke her own school record in the 400 IM with a 4:14.39, that was previously set by her at the GLVC conference meet. Van Jaarsveld found herself a spot on the podium in coming in the seventh with a 4:14:39.Â
McCoy, Buys,
Leticia Vaselli, and
Anahi Schreuders earned fourth in setting a new Greyhound record of the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:41.19.
While on the men's side, the 200 medley relay team compiled of
Jeron Thompson,
Jan Zuchowicz,
Kael Yorke, and
Diego Mas earned a spot on the podium, placing second while breaking the school record with a 1:25.30.
Later the men's 200 free relay earned themselves third with a 1:17.90. Thompson, Mas, Zuchowicz, and
Victor Antonon were a part of the bronze squad. Thompson, meanwhile, snapped the program's 50 free mark in the process (19.78).
Freshman
Landon Driggers broke his school record in the 400 IM in earning second for the Hounds, posting a 3:47.75, while
Christian Hedeen earned sixth in the 1000 free.
On the boards, the Hounds racked up three more All-Americans, including a pair of first teamers.
Benjamin Rader (521.00) took runner-up on the men's 3-meter, followed by teammate
Jason Lenzo (481.35) in sixth.
Mikaela Starr earned 12th place on the women's 1-meter (392.45).
WEDNESDAY
The NCAA Division II swimming and diving National Championship came to a halt due to weather on the first day of competition. Weather warnings in the Birmingham area led city officials to close the CrossPlex Wednesday before noon, cutting the morning preliminary session short. The championship is expected to resume Thursday at noon ET.
Marizel van Jaarsveld set a new school record in the 200 IM with a 1:59.31. The senior came in second in the preliminary race and was followed by
Kaitlyn McCoy, who ended in fourth with 2:00.73. Both advance to the event finals.
Junior
Johanna Buys achieved a lifetime best in the 50 free, with her time of 23.02 good for second. Sophomore
Leticia Vaselli finishd tied for eighth in the 50 and will compete in a swim-off between Lindenwood's Lexie Winnett as a tiebreaker to decide who will compete in the finals.
On the men's side,
Diego Mas tied for ninth in the 50 free prelims, while both
Landon Driggers (200 IM) and
Jeron Thompson (50 free) earned spots as alternates.
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