2015 NAIA National Championships – Women’s Meet
- Dates: Wednesday, March 4 – Saturday, March 7, 2015; prelims 9:00 am, finals 5:00 pm
- Location: Oklahoma City Community College, Oklahoma City, OK (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champions: Oklahoma Baptist University (results)
- Live Results: Available
- Live Video: Available
- Championship Central
Day One of the 2015 NAIA National Swimming and Diving Championships went more or less as anticipated, with Oklahoma Baptist jumping out to a strong lead from the outset. SCAD Savannah was a little off where we expected them to be but so was their main rival for second place, Brenau. The big gains came from Olivet Nazarene and Biola, who now are locked in a fierce battle for third with University of the Cumberlands.
200 Medley Relay
OBU repeated their 2014 victory with 3/4 of the same relay. Tammy Price led off in 25.99 and was followed by Kerryn Mullin (28.85), Laura Galarza (24.39), and Emma Forbes-Milne (22.61). Their winning time of 1:41.84 was .19 off last year’s pace, and thus just shy of the meet and pool record.
Brenau finished second with 1:44.72 from Talia Sola, Mary Katherine Jabbia, Michelle Billeaud, and Alisha Hodgetts. ONU (MacKenzie Anderson, Kelsey Weener, Whitney Whitehead, and Eugenia Sebastiani) snuck into third ahead of Cumberlands (1:45.80), while Biola (1:45.95) got past SCAD (1:45.98). Concordia placed seventh with 1:47.47; Union went 1:51.94 for eighth.
500 Freestyle
2014 champion Courtney Hayward of Brenau earned back-to-back titles when she won the 500 in 4:56.87. Hayward led wire-to-wire, taking it out strong and never relinquishing the lead. Freshman Baliee Blankemeier of Concordia and Grace Van Ryckeghem of Cumberlands were the only two really to stay with Hayward; they both improved on their seed times and finished second and third, respectively, with 4:59.65 and 5:00.47.
SCAD’s Emma McKinley swam to a fourth-place finish ahead of OBU’s Lexie Keller. Sixth went to Ella Kleinschmidt of Brenau, who passed Caroline Lepesant of SCAD over the final 100 yards. Lara Kaufmann of Union rounded out the field in eighth.
200 IM
The 200 IM was the fastest heat ever swum at NAIA Nationals, with the top three locked in an exciting battle from start to finish and all coming in under meet record time at the end. Biola senior Christine Tixier was out first, getting about a half-second lead on the field in her fly with 25.82. Cumberlands senior Charlotte Parent outsplit her by 1.5 on the backstroke and took over the lead heading into breast. Tixier’s breaststroke put her back in front, and while she and Parent evenly-split the freestyle, Tixier’s younger sister, Lisa, went a second faster than the two leaders in the free. In the end, the freshman got her hand to the wall .02 in front of Parent for second place. Christine won with 2:02.75; Lisa Tixier was runner-up in 2:03.08, while Parent got third with 2:03.10.
Ines Remersaro from OBU looked like she might challenge the three frontrunners, staying even with them through the backstroke, but she fell off in the breast and finished fourth with 2:06.47. ONU’s Tiffany Ray’s strong first half kept her ahead of the rest of the field, all of whom came in nearly together. Ray was fifth, followed by Mary Katherine Jabbia of Brenau, McKayla Stevens of College of Idaho, and Rebecca Justus of SCAD.
50 Freestyle
For the third event in a row, the defending NAIA national champion repeated her title when Galarza of OBU won the 50 free with 22.47, a full 4/10 faster than her winning time last year. Galarza led teammates Forbes-Milne (22.87), Price (23.38), and Antonissen (23.50) on a 1-2-3-4 sweep of the 50.
SCAD’s Julie Woody (23.75) and Heather Partlow (23.94) placed fifth and sixth. Kelsey Weener of ONU edged Michelle Billeaud of Brenau for seventh, 23.98 to 23.99.
800 Freestyle Relay
OBU led from start to finish, getting an early boost from Galarza who led off with 1:53.64. Keller followed in 1:53.16, then Antonissen (1:54.81) and Remersaro (1:54.72). Their combined time of 7:36.33 was nearly two seconds faster than what 3/4 of them went winning last year’s race.
Second, third and fourth places all touched together, with Biola (7:39.91) getting the slight edge on Brenau (7:40.19) and SCAD (7:40.45).
Cumberlands, ONU and Concordia were next, while College of Idaho, who had the fastest time out of the morning heat, made the podium at eighth.
Standings After Day One – Women
- Oklahoma Baptist University 195
- SCAD Savannah 137
- Brenau University 124
- Olivet Nazarene University 109
- University of the Cumberlands 102
- Biola University 101
- Concordia University Irvine 78
- The College of Idaho 59
- Union College 52
- Lindsey Wilson College 26
“The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., is a governing body of small athletics programs that are dedicated to character-driven intercollegiate athletics.
In 2000, the NAIA reaffirmed its purpose to enhance the character building aspects of sport. Through Champions of Character, the NAIA seeks to create an environment in which every student-athlete, coach, official and spectator is committed to the true spirit of competition through five core values.”
