EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Quincy University men's and women's swim teams competed in the GLVC Championships held at Deaconess Aquatic Center last week (Feb. 7-11). The Hawks came away with fourteen total individual finals appearances as well as eight relay finals finishes between the men's and women's squads.
Wyatt Walsh's podium finishes in the 200 and 400 IM events highlighted a big week for the Hawks that saw 11 team record swims in their biggest meet of the year with a loaded GLVC Championships field.
Men's
QU had five finals relay finishes, with the best being a sixth place 400-Yard Medley Relay finish from the team of Franco, Walsh, Montero and Kisasondi in team record time. The same team also took seventh place in the 200-Yard Medley Relay also good for a new team record. The 200-Yard free relay team of Scritchfield, Anderson, Franco and Mihini finished eighth with the 400-Yard free relay team of Walsh, Montero, Mihini and Kisasondi also coming in eighth. The 800-Yard free relay team of Mihini, Anderson, Scritchfield and May rounded out the relay finishers with a ninth-place swim in a new team record time.
Four individuals' swimmers came away with 10 total finals finishes in the meet.
Jeronimo Augurusa Franco finished 21
st in the 100-Yard backstroke and 23
rd in the 200-Yard backstroke in a new team record time of 1:53.81.
Martiniano Montero added a 200-Yard butterfly 20
th place finish as well.
Borna Kisasondi had three finals appearances and two new team records. Kisasondi finished 17
th in the 100-Yard butterfly in a new record time of 48.47, also passing the B-cut time in the event. Another 17
th place finish in the 100-Yard backstroke, also in record time, as well as a 24
th place finish in the 50-Yard freestyle closed out a great showing from the Hawks swimmer on for the week.
Wyatt Walsh had a statement week. Four finals appearances, two podium finishes, three new individual team records, seventh in overall points and second in points among freshman rounded out a very strong showing in his first GLVC Championship. Walsh finished second in the 200-Yard IM at 1:47.97 and third in the 400-Yard IM 3:51.77, both B-cut and team record finishes.
In addition, Walsh added another B-cut and team record in a seventh place 500-Yard freestyle finish as well as a 15
th place finish in the 200-Yard breaststroke.
Nolan May received a nomination for the James Spalding Sportsmanship award.
Women's
The women's squad had three finals finishes in relay events. The team of Cummings, Olson, Sparrow and Tiesinga took home three eighth-place finishes in the 800-Yard free relay, the 400-Yard Medley Relay and the 400-Yard free relay.
Faith Cummings was the top finisher for Quincy with two 15
th place finishes in the 100 and 200-Yard breaststroke.
Izabella Sparrow finished 19
th in the 100-Yard backstroke and
Chantal Tiesinga took 24
th in the 1000-Yard freestyle final.
Nancy Olson placed in three event finals as well as swimming a new team record. Olson took 24
th in the 200-Yard IM as well as 20
th in the 100-Yard butterfly. A new team record of 2:17.78 in the 200-Yard butterfly, good for 19
th in the event, was the best finish on the week for Olson.
In addition, Olson was also nominated for the James Spalding Sportsmanship award.
In an ultra-competitive GLVC Championship field, coach
Bryan Christiansen was very pleased with his teams showing in their first season. "I am very proud of this team. This is an intimidating conference with such tremendous depth, it feels like Nationals, and it takes a lot to make it back."
Christiansen added, "We had races that put us ahead of established teams, and it's easy to forget that we are new and inexperienced."
After competing against the best the GLVC has to offer across the week, coach Christiansen was upbeat about his teams performance as well as their future. "Everyone on this team had at least one lifetime best swim. We actually outscored many other equivalent first-year programs and I think we've set the bar high. We're just getting started. Hawks Forever!"
