Milligan
Milligan College swimmers returned from Brenau University with five national qualifying times after competing in an invitational meet against 15 other schools on Friday and Saturday.
The following national qualifying times were achieved:
In the 200-yard medley relay, the team of Casey Knapp, Alyssa Boyer, Emily Mark and Caroline Walker earned a national qualifier with a time of 2:07.75.
In the 800-yard free relay, the team of Mark, Walker, Makenzie Bennett and Boyer earned a national qualifier with a time of 8:58.08.
In the 200-yard free relay, the team of Knapp, Bennett, Walker and Mark earned a national qualifier with a time of 1:53.72.
In the 400-yard free relay, the team of Mark, Walker, Boyer and Knapp earned a national qualifier with a time of 4:07.07.
Boyer also achieved a national 'B' cut individually in the 1650-yard freestyle with a time of 19:37.85.
Milligan's swim teams will now take a short break until January when they return for winter training. The next meet will be at home on Saturday, Jan. 23, when the Buffs face Mars Hill University and West Virginia University Tech beginning at 2 p.m. Milligan's senior swimmers will be honored at the event.
St. Andrews
The St. Andrews University swim team competed at the NAIA Brenau Invitational in Georgia on Friday and Saturday and came away with some good results as the men placed 6th out of 14 schools and fourth among NAIA teams while the women were 11th of 15 and 7th in NAIA.
NCAA Div. II Limestone swept both the men's and women's meets while SCAD-Savannah (Ga.) won the NAIA portion of the meets on both sides.
The SAU men finished in front of AAC members Milligan (TN) and Point (Ga.) with 386 points while SCAD-Savannah, Lindsey Wilson (Ky.), and Lindenwood-Belleville (Ill.) were the only NAIA schools to finish ahead of SAU as the Knights were just 70 behind LWC for third overall.
The SAU women finished ahead of AAC foe Milligan by 100 points but behind Columbia (SC) who placed 4th overall. The Lady Knights ended the invite with 108 points and 7th out of 9 NAIA teams and just a few points behind Emmanuel for 7th overall.
The SAU men were led by the third place 400 free relay team of Nick Souza (JR/Williamsburg, VA), Georgi Krastev (JR/Pinellas Park, FL), Elliot Boon (JR/Glastonbury, England) and Drew Gurley (JR/Newport News, VA) in 3:09 which was the top NAIA time of the race while they were just 6 seconds off first place Limestone.
Boon did well with a fifth place finish (2nd in NAIA) in the 200 yard Breast in 2:09 while Krastev finished 2nd overall but first in the NAIA in the 200 yard Backstroke with a time of 1:52.4, two seconds behind the winning time of Limestone. He then also finished as the runner-up in the 100 yard Back in 50.36 seconds falling to a Limestone swimmer but he again had the best NAIA time.
Boon was also fourth in the 100 yard Breast in 58.6 seconds and second in the NAIA while Krastev finished 4th in the 100 Butterfly in 50.8 and again the best NAIA time. The 200 free relay team of Gurley, Josh Dixon (JR/Durban, S. Africa), Boon, and Souza placed 4th in 1:26.2 to record the best NAIA time. Gurley and Boon were also fourth and 5th in the 50 Free in 21.4 and 21.5 seconds which were the top NAIA times.
Xiomara Getrouw (FR/Paramaribo, Suriname) then placed 13th overall (7th in NAIA) in the 200 Back with a time of 2:16.7, 4 seconds behind the top NAIA time. She had her best race, though, in the 100 yard Back as she finished third overall in 59.5 seconds and the second-best NAIA time.
Triniti Counter (SR/Scottsbluff, NE) was also 10th overall in the 100 Butterfly and fourth in NAIA with a time of 1 minute while she was third in the 200 yard IM in 2:13.6, also a top NAIA time.
The top women's relay time came in the 200 Free as Counter, Getrouw, Choolwe Lourens (SO/Lusaka, Zambia), and Tarryn Holmes (SO/Johannesburg, South Africa) were 7th overall and 4th in NAIA with a time of 1:42.38.
The Knights swimmers will next be off for the holidays until returning January 9 at home to host Div. II Mars Hill (N.C.).
