The Lindenwood men's swimming and diving team is tied for first after Day 1 of the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships. Lindenwood scored 94 points on Wednesday, tying with Grand Valley State for the Day 1 lead. Defending national champion Drury was three points behind the Lions.
"The performances from tonight are a cumulative effort from a season when we challenged everyone to their limits," said head coach Jason Owen. "They have performed very well on the first day and the staff couldn't be more proud. We are excited about the days to come, and the support from families, friends, and fans has been amazing so far."The 1000 free was the top event for Lindenwood's men's team as it scored 25 points as a team. Borowicz-Skoneczny was seventh, Silva Santa was eighth, and Mijatovic was 15th.
Lindenwood had two runner-up finishes on the first day. Golban was second in the 50 free, just 0.03 seconds shy of the winning time. The 200 medley relay team of Jankiewicz, Pacholczyk, Golban, and Szczukowski was second with a time of 1:26.73.
Eigel won the "B" final race in the 200 IM to give him a ninth-place finish. Cochrane also had a ninth-place finish in the first diving event of the competition, the three-meter dive.
For Grand Valley State, junior Gianni Ferrero set a school record with his second-place finish in the 200 IM (1:45.50) as he bettered the third-place finish he achieved in 2014. Freshman Metin Aydin tallied a fourth-place finish in the 200 IM in a GVSU freshman record-time of 1:46.89 to earn his first All-America honor.
Sophomore Tyler Keelean turned in an incredible performance on the 3-meter diving board. Keelean suffered a shoulder injury just over four weeks ago and was unable to compete in the GLIAC Championships. Tyler, who was cleared to resume practice just days before the team left for the NCAA championships, notched a school-record score of 566.50 points en route to earning All-America honors with a second-place finish on the 3-meter board. Freshman Ian Ellis set a freshman record and earned All-America honors with his fourth-place finish (486.00). Freshman Joe Gucwa earned honorable mention All-America honors with his 10th-place finish (472.15), while fellow freshman Jared Gregory also earned honoralble mention plaudits with a 14th-place finish (444.15).
GVSU's 200 medley relay team of Aydin, Milan Medo, Gabriel Souza and Nate Wagner earned All-America status with an eighth-place finish in a time of 1:29.00.
