ROCKWALL, Texas – The Southwestern University men took down a school record for the second consecutive day and earned its first title at the 2014 SCAC Swimming and Diving Championships while both teams held steady in the standings on Thursday.
Southwestern was able to hold its second place lead with help from the 400-yard medley relay team that swam to a school record of 3:27.68. The quartet of Ty Lapinski, Shelby Hall, Kyler Wood and Simmon Belaineh took home the first relay SCAC title ever for Southwestern and the first of the weekend for both squads.
The pool continued with fast times all across the board as Trinity extended its first place lead on the men's side with 329 points while Southwestern finished the day with 238 points. UC-Santa Cruz rounds out the top three after day two with 190 points.
The Pirate men also added four top 10 finishes paced by Belaineh and Evan Jones third place finishes. Belaineh finished just off a Southwestern record time in the 50-yard free with a time of 21.27 and less than one second behind first and second place finishes from Trinity.
Jones claimed his third place finish in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:40.94. Teammate Shelby Hall also claimed a top five finish in the 500-yard freestyle finishing just behind Jones with a time of 4:41.59.
Mason Lundy rounded out the Pirates top 10 finishes on Thursday with a sixth place finish in the 200-yard individual medley. Lundy swam to a time of 1:57.44, which narrowly missed a school record as well.
On the women's side Southwestern held onto fourth place in the team standings as Trinity moved ahead of Colorado College to stand first and second. UC-Santa Cruz continues to separate the Pirate women from the top three with only 27 points between the two teams.
Individually the Pirate women picked up four top 10 finishes including a top five finish from Sandy de Haas in the 500-yard freestyle. The first-year swimmer earned a time of 5:20.19 to finish in fifth.
Teammates Blythe Nava and Madison Doty earned seventh and eighth place finish respectively in the 50-yard freestyle. Nava edged her teammate by less than a second with a time of 25.10 while Doty swam to a time of 25.32.
Kenly Gaynor rounded out the Pirates to top 10 finishers with a 10th place finish in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:16.16.
Preliminaries with start Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. with evening finals kicking off at 6:30 p.m. Friday night will also see the men's three-meter diving finals.