Summit League – Men & Women
- Wednesday, February 20 – Saturday, February 23
- Midco Aquatic Center, Sioux Falls, SD (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champion: Denver women (5x) & Denver men (5x) (results)
- Live results
- Live video
- Championship Central
It wasn’t a perfect opening day for the Denver Pioneers on day 1 of the 2019 Summit League Swimming & Diving Championships, but none-the-less, both teams remain overwhelming favorites to win their 6th-straight Summit League Championships.
Men’s Recap
The Denver men opened the day with a 1:26.51 in the 200 medley relay. While that’s slower than they were at either of the last 2 Summit League Championship meets, it still gave them an easy 4-second margin of victory over runners-up South Dakota, who took 2nd in 1:30.32. The highlight split for Denver was sophomore Cy Jager, who swam 23.68 on the team’s breaststroke leg. That’s 4-tenths faster than he was as a freshman last season. This relay included 3 sophomores and 1 junior: the only scoring relay in the event without a senior on it.
The day’s 2nd relay didn’t go as well for the Denver men. After touching in 6:26.67, the relay was disqualified. That left South Dakota to stand atop the podium with a relay that included 3 freshmen and a sophomore. The team’s top splits went to Elbert Chuang (the sophomore) in 1:39.99 and anchor Jacob Won (a freshman) in 1:39.92. The only other scoring split under 1:40 was a 1:37.82 leadoff from South Dakota State freshman Trever Brenner. His relay would eventually place 3rd.
Including their disqualified and ‘B’ relays, Denver had 8 total swimmers under 1:40, which demonstrates their depth relative to the rest of the conference.
The battle originally for 2nd, but what turned out to be a battle for first, came down to less than two-tenths. The top 3 scoring relays were South Dakota (6:43.22), Eastern Illinois (6:43.27), and South Dakota State (6:43.36).
Team Standings After Day 1 – Men’s
- South Dakota – 74
- (TIE) South Dakota State/Eastern Illinois/Western Illinois – 62
- Denver – 40
- Valparaiso – 28
Women’s Recap
Big diving points for South Dakota kept the Coyote women close after day 1 of the 2019 Summit League Championships. They went 1-2 on the women’s 3-meter event thanks to senior Sarah Schank and sophomore Haley Pederson.
The 4-time defending champion Denver Pioneers, however, took 3rd and 4th place in the event, which was enough for them to take a day 1 lead thanks to a sweep of the swimming events.
First, in the opening 200 medley relay, Denver won in 1:38.38, repeating as champions in spite of swimming 4 new faces on the relay as compared to lasts year’s winning team.
Their 800 free relay, meanwhile, repeated as champions, swimming a 7:15.79 to finish exactly 14 seconds ahead of runners-up Omaha (7:29.79). Denver had the 4 fastest splits in the field, led by senior leadoff Annelyse Tullier in 1:48.33. Both Tullier and junior Josiane Valette (1:48.43), the team’s 2nd-fastest split, swam both of the day 1 relays, meaning that each will have to sit one out later in the meet.
The wins run the Denver women’s undefeated streak in Summit League relays to 27, having never lost since they joined the conference for the 2013-2014 season.
Team Standings After Day 1 – Women’s
- Denver – 120
- South Dakota – 114
- Omaha – 104
- South Dakota State – 77
- Western Illinois – 65
- Eastern Illinois – 52
