2014 NAIA National Championships – Men’s Meet
- Dates: Wednesday, March 5 – Saturday, March 8, 2014; prelims 10:00 am, finals 6:00 pm
- Location: Oklahoma City Community College, Oklahoma City, OK (Central Time Zone)
- Defending Champions: Oklahoma Baptist University (results)
- Live Results: Available
- Live Video: Available
- Championship Central
It was a fast first day at the 2014 NAIA National Championships in Oklahoma City. Three men’s national records went down, and in the other two events the winning times were faster than last year’s. Oklahoma Baptist built up a huge lead, as expected, but there were several surprises in the next group: Olivet Nazarene, SCAD Savannah, and Concordia are tightly bunched in the race for second place and Union College is only two points ahead of St. Andrews for fifth.
2014 NAIA men’s 200 medley relay L to R: SCAD (2nd), OBU (1st), ONU (3rd). Photo: Anne Lepesant
200 medley relay
OBU opened the meet with a new NAIA record in the 200 medley relay. Daniel Ramirez (22.09), Gregory Penny (24.45), Garland Sullivan (21.10), and Logan Lassley (19.19) combined for a 1:26.83, which was 0.83 faster than OBU’s record-setting relay from 2013. SCAD finished second in 1:28.83; ONU took third with 1:30.02.
500 free
SCAD freshman Joel Ax took out his 500 quite a bit faster than in the morning; by the 100 he was a second ahead of his earlier pace and already two seconds ahead of the rest of the field. At the 200 he was more than three seconds ahead of his morning swim, and by the 300 he was up 5 and on pace to break the NAIA record. At the 350 he fell off a little and ended up missing the record by a second, but he won the race by half a pool length. 2013 national champion Andrew Fischer of ONU was second in 4:31.56, .26 ahead of Union College freshman Bradley Moore.
200 IM
2014 NAIA men’s 200 IM L to R: Buchanan (2nd), Anderson (1st), Robbins (3rd). Photo: Anne Lepesant
ONU sophomore Jacob Anderson, who finished seventh in 2013, won the 200 IM in 1:49.86, breaking his school record by 1.2 seconds. Swimming in lane 5, Anderson took the lead after the backstroke leg and never looked back. Second through fifth places all went 1:50s: Anderson’s teammate Aaron Buchanan finished second in 1:50.07, OBU’s Daniel Robbins was third with 1:50.61, and Karl Hegwein of SCAD just out-touched OBU’s Gilles Cantrelle 1:50.90 to 1:50.99.
50 free
2013 runner-up Lassley of OBU took down the NAIA record in the 50 free with a blazing 19.71. Teammate Sullivan took second in 20.21, .03 ahead of SCAD’s Pat Cardillo. Lassley broke a record that had been set by Nick Schuttinger of OBU at last year’s meet: 19.83.
800 free relay
In a very exciting end to the meet, SCAD’s Ax (1:38.29), Cardillo (1:38.14), Ryan Searles (1:39.12), and Mark Shvartsman (1:39.43) smashed the NAIA record in the 800 free relay with their 6:34.98. The previous mark of 6:39.17 had been set by OBU in 2012. Second place went to OBU’s Javier Sossa, Ramirez, Cantrelle, and Tim Richard, whose 6:36.18 was also under the old record. Ax, Cardillo, Searles and Shvartsman broke the SCAD record in the event by nearly ten seconds.
Standings
Men
- Oklahoma Baptist University 301
- Olivet Nazarene University 167
- SCAD Savannah 157
- Concordia University 127
- Union College 88
- St. Andrews University 86
- Wayland Baptist University 51
- University of the Cumberlands 48
- Asbury University 34
- Lindsey Wilson College 28
Biola University 28
“The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., is a governing body of small athletics programs that are dedicated to character-driven intercollegiate athletics.
In 2000, the NAIA reaffirmed its purpose to enhance the character building aspects of sport. Through Champions of Character, the NAIA seeks to create an environment in which every student-athlete, coach, official and spectator is committed to the true spirit of competition through five core values.”