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Tiffin Finishes Strong At GLIAC Championships

Four school records fell as the Tiffin University men’s and women’s swimming and diving team closed out the GLIAC Championships, Saturday at the Spire Institute.

"It’s very hard to compete at a four day meet and be able to still swim record times on the last day,” said head coach Margarita Kalmikova.  “Our sprinters again did an excellent job getting into the finals of the extremely competitive 100 freestyle. Ty (Collins) just missed making the 200 backstroke championship final. Alex (Weaver) was in the top 8 on three meter, which made him a two-time conference finalist. Our 4x100 free relay took 4th again and beat the previous record by five seconds.”

For the men, Wayne State scored 1011.50 points to win their fourth straight title.   Rounding out the top three was Grand Valley State (2nd – 894.50) and Ashland (3rd – 500 points).  The Dragons scored 257 points to finish sixth, nine points out of fifth.

The 400-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Ygor Zanardo, freshman Kyle Doss, freshman Lucas Merigue and junior Pedro Van Isschot placed fourth with a school record time of 3:07.12.  Senior Alex Weaver scored 229.95 points to place eighth on the 3-meter springboard. 

Junior Ty Collins was runner-up in the consolation final of the 200 backstroke (1:53.94).  In the pre-lims he set the school record at 1:53.10.  Freshman Mitch Filka was ninth on the 3-meter board (212.25 points).  Van Isschot and Merigue scored in the 100 free with Van Isschot setting the school record of 46.46 in the pre-lims.

For the women, Wayne State scored 959 points to win their fifth straight championship.  Rounding out the top three were Grand Valley State (2nd – 667 points) and Northern Michigan (3rd – 576 points).  Tiffin finished ninth with 64 points.

The dragons scored with the 400 free relay team of freshman Lauren Sprenger, freshman Melinda Ulbrecht, sophomore Kristen Guballa and freshman Brooke Hill (4:28.80).  In the 200 breaststroke pre-lims, Ulbrecht set the school record at 2:31.35.

“It’s hard to highlight everything that we have achieved this season,” said Kalmikova.  “Our athletes worked so hard all season long. It just wasn’t on the swimming and diving but also on building the team with me. I'm extremely proud of every single one of them. Now we are waiting to find out if Kyle Doss will qualify for NCAA's. It will be remarkable achievement for a first year program and Kyle.”

-- Courtesy TIFFIN UNIVERSITY

 

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