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