Courtesy: SCAC Sports
SAN ANTONIO, Texas – With wins in both the 200 medley relay and the 800 freestyle relay, as well as three individual victories, the Trinity University men opened a 745-579 lead over Southwestern University after the second day of the 2021 SCAC Men’s Swimming & Diving Championship. Official Website | Friday’s Complete Results | Swimming Photo Gallery | Diving Photo Gallery
As has been the case with most collegiate competition this academic year, the 2021 championships have been modified due to COVID-19 protocol. The meet itself has been condensed from its normal four-day schedule to a three-day event. Additionally, the meet is being conducted as two separate events with the women’s teams swimming in the morning and men’s teams competing in the afternoon. All heats are being swam as timed finals with no preliminaries.
The Trinity men opened Friday’s session by earning their third relay victory of the championships, taking top honors in the 200 medley relay in a time of 1:32.37 – a new Walker Pool record and the third fastest time in SCAC Championships history. Freshman Michael Kohn, junior Spencer Steward, freshman Nathan Early and sophomore Nathan Anthony led the Tigers to victory. Southwestern University placed second with a time of 1:33.88 and Centenary College was third with a finish of 1:35.83.
In the first of the evening’s five individual races, freshman Beau Player of Southwestern touched in the 400 IM in a winning time of 4:11.86 followed by another first-year swimmer, Tony Saenz of Colorado College, who came in second with a time of 4:12.32. Senior Matt Oevermann of Southwestern placed third in 4:12.92.
Junior Miguel Vasquez picked up the first individual title for a Centenary man since the 2014 championship meet when he touched first in the 100 fly in a time of 50.89. Senior Keith Gill of Southwestern was second in 51.20 and Trinity freshman John Fontenot was third in a time of 51.55.
The next event, the 200 free, saw Trinity freshman Nathan Early take gold with a winning time of 1:41.92. His teammate, sophomore Omar Shahatit was second in a time of 1:42.66 and Southwestern freshman Sebastian Ortiz placed third with a finish of 1:42.85.
Another Trinity freshman brought home gold in the 100 breast as Kendal Southwell picked up the victory in a time of 57.29. Junior Mitchell Lulich of Centenary claimed second with a finishing time of 58.31 and Alek Argueta, a senior from Southwestern who won the event in 2019, took home third with a 58.52 finish.
Keeping with the night’s first-year theme, Trinity’s Kohn won his second race of the championships, touching first in a time of 50.05 – the fourth-fastest time in SCAC Championship history. Centenary’s Vasquez picked up silver with a swim of 51.03 and sophomore Matt Lanzara, last year’s winner in this event, finished third with a time of 51.82
In the final event of the evening, Trinity kept its relay win streak in tact, as the team of Kohl, junior Daniel Sarman, Shahatit and Early came home in a winning time of 6:48.47 – the fifth-fastest time in SCAC Championship history. Southwestern was second in a time of 6:55.00 and Colorado College finished third in 7:03.67.
In the diving competition that took place earler in the afternoon, Trinity senior Anthony Liva repeated as the 3-meter champion and scored 487.75 points at this year’s championship. Freshman Konstantine Partalas was second with a score of 457.55 and Colorado College sophomore Mac O’Brien was third with 375.50 points.
The team standings after the first 13 events are as follows:
1) Trinity University – 745
2) Southwestern University – 579
3) Colorado College – 357
4) Centenary College – 238
5) McMurry University – 207
6) University of the Ozarks – 140
7) Austin College – 121
The men will complete their portion of the championship tomorrow with timed finals beginning at 2:30 pm CT. Click here for the complete schedule of events.
