INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Milwaukee men's and women's swimming & diving teams got the 2023 Horizon League Championships off to a strong start Wednesday, competing in day one from the IU Natatorium.
The first day of the event features a pair of relays and just one individual event, with
Jared Kleczka leading the way with a runner-up performance in the men's 3-meter diving event.
The MKE women sit in second place after a pair of impressive relay results, while the men currently sit in third, just two points out of second place.
Kleczka put together an outstanding finals performance, moving up four spots from his preliminary standing to claim his second-place spot on the podium with a total of 322.95 points, a total that once again topped the NCAA zone-qualifying threshold.
The MKE women opened the meet with a season-best effort in the 200 medley relay, earning a runner-up finish.
Molly Meland,
Makaila Scheiblein,
Erika Thomas, and
Nhia Caras combined to take second place in a time of 1:42.70.
In the 800 freestyle relay, the women were on the podium once again, this time with the combination of
Bella Passamani, Thomas,
Grace Mayes, and
Allie Buytendorp placing third in 7:29.60.
Kleczka paced Milwaukee in the diving event, seeing a strong showing overall as
Adam St. John added points with a seventh-place finish (276.75) and
Ben Stitgen placed 11
th with a total of 257.85.
The Panther relays on the men's side saw the team place sixth in the 200 medley relay (
Jared Bruce,
Nathan Rozeboom,
Nik Wheeler,
Ben Lorenz) and fifth in the 800 free relay, seeing Oakland set new championship records in both events. The team of
Jay Jensen,
Jackson Ahrens,
Andrew Innerebner, and
Mason Schoof touched the wall in a season-best 6:43.07.
Day two of the championships gets underway tomorrow with swimming preliminaries at 9 a.m. CST and diving prelims after at 12 p.m. CST. Swimming & diving finals for each day will begin at 4:30 p.m. CST. All of the action will be streamed on EPSN+ and links are available on the MKE website.
TEAM SCORES
Women
1 – Oakland (80)
T2 – Milwaukee (66)
T2 – IUPUI (66)
4 – Youngstown State (60)
5 – Cleveland State (56)
6 – Green Bay (26)
Men
1 – IUPUI (149)
2 – Oakland (91)
3 – Milwaukee (89)
4 – Green Bay (71)
5 – Youngstown State (69)
6 – Cleveland State (66)