EVANSVILE, Ind.—The first full day of the 2023 GLVC Swimming & Diving Championships is in the books, and the UIndy Greyhounds find themselves squarely in the hunt for both the men's and women's crowns. The Hounds finished the day with four event titles to sit atop the women's standings and third in the men's.
 
The annual conference meet, which is being held at Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Ind., continues Thursday morning with prelims starting at 11 a.m. ET. The event started Tuesday evening and will continue through Saturday.
 
WEDNESDAY
Diego Mas claimed the 50-free crown, out-sprinting the league's fastest swimmers with a lightning-quick time of 19.60 to edge McKendree-speedster Gregg Lichinsky by just .03 seconds. The mark set a new GLVC record and matched his own program best – one he set back at the House of Champions meet in November – while also giving the Greyhounds their first gold in the high-profile event since 2014.
 
Johanna Buys made it back-to-back conference titles in the women's 50 free, touching a 22.71. Right behind was teammate Leticia Vaselli, whose season-best 23.15 was good for runner-up.
 
UIndy also went 1-2 in the 1000 free, highlighted by sophomore Cedric Buessing's continued success on the league's biggest stage. The reigning GLVC Men's Swimmer of the Year earned his second straight gold in the event with a school-record and NCAA-A-cut time of 9:01.69. Teammate Christian Hedeen secured silver with a 9:11.87, improving both his personal best and B-cut times.
 
Though the gold went to McKendree, the Greyhounds scored big points in the women's 1000. UIndy claimed second through fifth place, including a silver-medal swim from Emilia Colti-Dumitrescu and a bronze from Karolina Dubcakova, to amass a whopping 106 team points.
 
Kaitlyn McCoy repeated as the women's 200 IM champ. The 2021 national runner-up in the event, McCoy outpaced a trio of Drury Panthers with a winning time of 2:00.01.
 
Meanwhile on the boards, the Hounds started the diving events by nabbing two more medals. Mikaela Starr and Alexis Lumaj earned gold and silver, respectively, on the 1-meter. It marked the second career GLVC title for Starr, who also won gold two years ago on the 3-meter board.
 
The Greyhounds' capped the night with a pair of podium finishes in the always-exciting 200 medley relay. Julia Magierowska, Celina Schmidt, Mika Heideyer and Vaselli combined for a gold-medal time of 1:41.52, out-touching Drury by nine-tenths of a second. In the final race of the evening, Jeron Thompson, Liki Prema, Serge Ahadzhanian and Mas claimed silver with a 1:26.00, falling just .13 seconds shy of McKendree's winning time.
 
OTHER NOTABLES
4th- Brynhildur Traustadottir, 1000 free
5th- Joao Silva, 50 free
5th- Jamie Glover, 1000 free
5th- Celina Schmidt, 200 IM
6th- Sarah Kerbrat, 1-meter
7th- Stanislaw Chalat, 1000 free
7th- Andrea Gomez, 200 IM
 
TUESDAY
The meet kicked off Tuesday evening with the men's and women's finals of the 800 freestyle relay, with both events netting a medal for the Hounds. The women's quartet of Heideyer, Vaselli, McCoy and Brynhildur Traustadottir claimed the silver, while the men's team of Buessing, Ahadzhanian, Hedeen and Silva took bronze.