INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – On the second day of the 2022 Horizon League Championships, the Milwaukee men's and women's swimming and diving teams produced several strong results including a freshman record.
After two days of competition, the women rank in second with 216.5 points, behind first-place Oakland. The men are currently in sixth with 123 points, trailing closely behind Green Bay and UIC.
"It is important to swim well in the prelims and we did just that," Head coach
Kyle Clements said. "We had a lot of people back tonight in the finals and they were able to put up a lot of points for the team. We are happy with where we are in the standings and really looking forward to tomorrow."
In the morning preliminaries,
Ben Lorenz set a new freshman record in the 50m freestyle with a time of 20.67 seconds. The time surpassed the previous freshman record set in 2009 by Kyle Trelka (20.72) and put Lorenz eighth on the top-10 list in the event. Lorenz advanced to the B-finals in the 50m free, placing eighth at 20.87 seconds.
The Panthers women's team sent three to the A-finals in the 50m free, with
Nhia Caras leading the way at a third-place finish. The freshman touched the wall at 23.53 seconds while
Kelen McDaniels and
Cassandra Hutchins recorded identical times of 23.77 seconds for the seventh and eighth spots in the heat.
Molly Meland finished fourth in the B-finals of the 50m free with a time of 23.95.
On the boards,
Jared Kleczka collected a fourth-place finish in the one-meter at 290.55 points.
Adam St. John also compete in the finals for Milwaukee, finishing seventh with a score of 261.40.
Ben Stitgen competed in the consolation finals on the one-meter board, placing fifth at 241.65 points.
In the women's 500m free,
Bella Passamani and
Antoni Haupt used strong preliminary times to advance to the A-finals. Passamani's prelim swim at 5:00.32 now ranks fifth all-time on the top-10 list and she followed it up with a time of 5:00.39 in the finals, good for sixth. Haupt who posted a time of 5:00.75 in the prelims (good for eighth all-time) finished eighth in the A-finals at 5:04.40.
Allie Buytendorp placed third in the B-finals with a time of 5:03.38.
Jay Jensen recorded an impressive time in the men's 500m free, tallying a runner-up finish in the B-final. Jensen's time of 4:29.30 comes in at the third-best time in program history.
Vince Chiappetta placed seventh in the B-finals at 4:36.97.
Meghan Jagdfeld advanced to the A-finals in the 200 IM, placing seventh at 2:06.02.
Makaila Scheiblein (2:07.37) and
Riley Melendy (2:09.57) competed in the B-finals, finishing fifth and eighth, respectively.
"It was exciting to get going today into the individual events," Clements said. "The more people we have involved in the meet the more fun we have."
Day two of the championships concluded with the 200 free relays. The women's relay team of McDaniels, Hutchins, Jagdfeld, and Caras posted a runner-up finish at 1:33.31, a time that is now eighth in program history. The men's team of
John Ruan, Jensen,
Jackson Ahrens, and Lorenz finished fifth with a time of 1:22.62.
Day three of the League Championships resumes tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. CST with the swimming prelims followed by diving prelims at 12 p.m. Finals of the events will begin at 4:30 p.m. and be aired on ESPN+. Friday's events include the 100 butterfly, 400 IM, 200 free, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke, women's one-meter dive, and the 400 medley relay.
