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
There were quite a few near-misses but two records did fall in the women’s meet on Day Two. Christine Tixier lowered her own mark in the 100 fly during prelims, and Oklahoma Baptist re-set their own 200 free relay record in finals.
OBU continued to move forward, putting further distance between themselves and second-place SCAD. In addition to their ability to populate nearly every final, the Bison fielded several divers who added 49 points to their Day Two total.
SCAD maintained their lead over Brenau in the race for second, but lost ground in finals to the Golden Tigers, who are intent on knocking SCAD off the runner-up pedestal.
200 Freestyle Relay
Oklahoma Baptist opened with a meet record in the 200 medley relay from the quartet of Laura Galarza (22.85), Emma Forbes-Milne (22.84), Tammy Price (23.31), and Andrea Antonissen (22.91). Their 1:31.91 lowered the record they had set last year, by .26. The four swam in the exact same order in which they swept the 50 free final last night.
ONU (Eugenia Sebastiani, Kelsey Weener, Holly Risinger, and Deirdre Gerke) came in second with 1:34.99, out-touching SCAD by .36. SCAD (Julie Woody, Shannon Cummings, Heather Partlow, and Haley Thompson), in turn, touched out Biola, 1:35.35 to 1:35.68, while Biola beat Concordia by 1/100. Cumberlands finished sixth, edging Brenau 1:37.32 to 1:37.61. College of Idaho was eighth in 1:38.79.
400 IM
Baliee Blankemeier of Concordia led wire to wire, swimming out of lane 3. She and Charlotte Parent of Cumberlands, who was next to her in lane 4, were well over a body length in front of the field after the butterfly. The two straded stroke for stroke during the backstroke leg, then the field began to shift throughout the breast. Blankemeier moved out ahead, while Brenau’s Courtney Hayward pulled even with Parent. Hayward pulled even with Parent after the breast, and outsplit Blankemeyer over the 100 free, but the freshman from Concordia had just enough of a lead to secure the win, 4:24.27 to 4:24.87. Lisa Tixier of Biola moved up on Parent and eventually just edged her at the end, taking third with 4:28.72.
Fifth through eighth belonged to ONU’s Tiffany Ray, SCAD’s Rebecca Justus, Hayley Ronci of ONU, and Madison Osterlund of Thomas University.
100 Butterfly
Defending champion Christine Tixier of Biola won the 100 fly but missed taking another chunk out of the record she has broken three times now. Tixier won in 54.34, more than two seconds ahead of freshman Alisha Hodgetts of Brenau (56.61). Teammate Michelle Billeaud (57.01) moved to third when she edged out SCAD’s Heather Partlow (57.04) and Lauran Stephenson of Lindsey Wilson (57.06). dropped over 2 seconds to qualify third for finals, going 57.16.
SCAD’s Cadie Crow (58.28) took sixth; Mikala Nelson (58.67) of Concordia and Laura Winter (58.81) of Wayland Baptist rounded out the field.
200 Freestyle
Defending champion Galarza of OBU led a 1-2 Bison sweep of the 200 free in 1:50.49. Teammate Lexie Keller went 1:51.89 for second. ONU’s Sebastiani was third with 1:52.72.
McKayla Stevens of College of Idaho took fourth in 1:53.36; Brittany Litke of Cumberlands (1:54.66) and Shelby Rumker of Brenau (1:54.69) came in to the wall ahead of SCAD’s Haley Thompson (1:55.38) and Samantha Benson (1:56.33).
100 Breaststroke
Kerryn Mullin of OBU repeated her 2014 title with a 1:03.16 win in the 100 breast. Teammate Leslie White was runner-up with 1:05.42. Brenau’s Michelle Billeaud and Mary Katherine Jabbia went 3-4 with 1:05.94 and 1:06.12, respectively.
Melissa Peplinski of Cumberlands, Jule Stein of Union College, Columbia College’s Safiyyah Abdullah, and Heather Partlow of SCAD rounded out the podium.
100 Backstroke
Talia Sola of Brenau got a quick jump on top qualifiers Ines Remersaro and Tammy Price of OBU, taking it out fast, then coming home in 54.76 Remersero clocked a 55.48, and Prince, a 55.97.
ONU’s MacKenzie Anderson (56.40), placed fourth, and was followed by SCAD’s Julie Woody (57.98), OBU’s Alena Titenkova (58.45), SCAD’s Hannah Legg (58.59) and OBU’s Faith Moss (1:00.35).
400 Medley Relay
Brenau gained a lot of ground on SCAD in the race for second with their finish in the 400 medley relay. OBU took first, thanks to strong swims by Remersaro (56.19), Mullin (1:03.82), Galarza (53.62), and Lexie Keller (51.32). Brenau placed second behind Sola, Billeaud, Hodgetts, and Hayward (3:50.79). Third place went to Biola in 3:51.73.
University of the Cumberlands (3:52.52) came in fourth, while SCAD remained ahead of ONU, Concordia, and College of Idaho.
Standings After Day Two – Women
Heading into the final day of competition, there is a strong race going on for second, and for fourth through seventh. The last day should be an exciting one.
- Oklahoma Baptist University 483
- SCAD Savannah 326
- Brenau University 318
- University of the Cumberlands 229
- Olivet Nazarene University 226
- Concordia University 222
- Biola University 213
- College of Idaho 130
- Union College 101
- Lindsey Wilson College 54
“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.”
