INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Milwaukee men's and women's swimming & diving teams concluded the final day of competition at the House of Champions Invitational at the IUPUI Natatorium Saturday.
 
Overall, both teams continued to reset season-bests in all events, highlighted today by Julie Rebek claiming the title on the 3-meter diving board and Erika Thomas breaking the MKE freshman record in the 200 butterfly.
 
"We always enjoy this meet because there is not a lot of pressure on it," head coach Kyle Clements. "This is one that we just take a small break from our training and use it as a spot-check to see how we are doing. We put the suits on and we had a chance to go fast. I was really, really happy with how both teams did."
 
The women's team finished the three-day meet with 1,071 points, good for third place out of seven teams. On the men's side, the squad compiled 927.5 points, which placed the team fourth at the event.
 
"With the small little rest that we did, we were faster than I thought we would have been," Clements said. "As a team, we moved up in the rankings at this meet from where we finished last year and made a lot more A-finals and B-finals than we had in the past."

The final day of action featured the 400 freestyle relay as well as the 1650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, and diving for both men and women. Following morning preliminaries, Milwaukee combined to send 20 swimmers on to finals action in the evening, including 10 to A-finals, the highest total of the three-day meet for the championship heats.
 
For the full results and placing of the morning preliminaries, click HERE.
 
Rebek topped a large field on the 3-meter board, just missing another NCAA-qualifying score with a total of 277.58 points to claim the narrow victory.
 
Thomas continues to impress, this time breaking the MKE freshman record in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:03.95. Despite narrowly missing the win (first-place was 2:03.14), Thomas knocked nearly a second off the former mark of 2:04.81, set in 2019 by Bella Passamani.
 
"On the women's side, one of the great things is the depth across all classes – from fifth-years down to the freshmen and the divers," Clements said. "So many big points and so many special things that can happen. The highlight for the day was Julie Rebek winning the 3-meter and Erika Thomas setting the 200 fly freshmen record. Lots of great swims across the board and we are looking forward to the rest of the season."
 
Highlights on the men's side included a fourth-place finish by Jay Jensen in the 1650 freestyle in 15:55.76 and a sixth-place effort from Hayden Christiansen in the 200 backstroke, touching the wall in 1:50.76.
 
"On the men's side … great effort … from returners, from freshmen, from everybody," Clements said. "We compare times to what we did at the final meet at the Horizon last year. We go back and look at relay splits and overall times and we're just faster. We are moving in the right direction and scoring more points than our league competitors and with this format that is tough to do so we are moving in the right direction."
 
The women had strong showings in the 200 fly (led by Thomas) and in the 200 backstroke. In the 200 fly, Brianna Homontowski also swam in the A-final, placing seventh in 2:07.97. Bri Zablocki won the consolation final in a time of 2:07.29 and Allie Buytendorp was 11^th in a time of 2:11.47. All four finished higher than their seed positions from preliminaries.
 
Mara Freeman (fifth in 2:03.29) and Giulia Guerra-Montes (eighth in 2:04.09) both swam in the championship heat in the 200 backstroke, with Riley Melendy in the consolation final, placing 13^th in 2:07.40.
 
The big events on the men's side included the 200 back, the 200 fly, and the 1650 freestyle.
 
In the 200 back, Christiansen led the way with his sixth-place effort. The Panthers then had four in B-finals: Mason Schoof (13^th in 1:54.37), Emery Reszka (14^th in 1:54.66), Ben Huynh (15^th in 1:55.71), and Jackson Hodek (16^th in 1:55.88).
 
In the mile, Jensen led the strong outing with his fourth-place positioning. Jack Garcia was fifth in 16:00.30, while Vince Chiappetta was eighth in 16:10.26.
 
In the 200 fly, Zach McClellan finished in sixth place, moving up from eighth in the prelims with a season-best 1:51.33. Nik Wheeler was eighth in 1:53.34.
 
Other top finishers for the women included Makaila Scheiblein, placing second in the 200 breaststroke in a time of 2:18.34. Antoni Haupt finished fourth in the 1650 free in 17:18.66, and Meghan Jagdfeld was eighth in the 100 free in a season-best time of 51.96.
 
The large event featured programs competing from host IUPUI as well as Butler, Green Bay, UIndy, Lewis, UIC, and the Panthers.
 
Today's action brings a break in the schedule for the team, returning to the pool in 2023 at the University of Chicago January 14.