2015 NAIA National Championships – Men – Day One Up/Down

2015 NAIA National Championships – Men’s Meet

• Dates: Wednesday, March 4 – Saturday, March 7, 2015; prelims 9:00 am, finals 5:00 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

The 2015 NAIA National Championships in Oklahoma City got underway on Thursday morning with a bang, as three-time defending team champion Oklahoma Baptist University used its depth to get out in front of the field with 10 finalists, 7 of them in A finals. Olivet Nazarene was even more successful, nabbing a total of 12 places in tonight’s final, half of which are championship spots.

Concordia had a big morning, improving on their psych sheet seedings relative to everyone else and adding swimmers to finals across the board. SCAD got off to a tentative start but still looks to be in good shape going forward.

Ups/Downs – Day One

200 Medley Relay

OBU led the qualifiers with 1:29.09 in prelims, but were followed closely by ONU (1:29.38). St. Andrews went 1:31.20, qualifying just ahead of Concordia, SCAD, Cumberlands, Wayland Baptist, and Thomas University.

500 Freestyle

Number one seed and defending champion Joel Ax of SCAD cruised to an easy top spot for tonight’s final with 4:28.66 in prelims. Frank Tapia of ONU dropped 9 seconds to qualify second with 4:33.48. Lucas Dengler-Larles of Lindenwood improved his seed time by more than 19 seconds (4:33.59) for the third spot.

Union’s Cameron Donaldson was fourth, followed by teammate Baxter Dalton, ONU’s Sam Borgman, Concordia’s Laszlo Perlaky, and Andrew Fischer of ONU.

200 IM

With a big 4.2-second drop, Alex Mundt of OBU earned the right to occupy lane four in tonight’s 200 IM final. Mundt went 1:50.88, finishing just ahead of Jacob Anderson of ONU (1:50.98). Karl Hegwein of SCAD was the third-fastest with 1:51.27.

Concordia’s Kevin Reichel came up with a big swim, dropping nearly 5 seconds to qualify fourth. Calvin Price of ONU, Fernando Morillas of OBU, Marc Tahull of Cumberlands, and Concordia’s Jacob Lear round out the championship final.

50 Freestyle

OBU sprinters were out in full force this morning, as the Bison qualified five A finalists in the 50 free. St. Andrews’ David Lambert was the fastest qualifier, however, with 20.07. Defending champion Logan Lassley of OBU and his teammate Jake Phillips both came in at 20.17, while fellow Bison Daniel Robbins qualified fourth with 20.27.

The rest of the A final will comprise Simon Pheasant of ONU, JP Goyetche and Marc Sambolin of OBU, and Josiah Morales from Wayland Baptist.

800 Freestyle Relay

Biola posted the fastest 800 free relay in the morning session, clocking a 6:57.88 thanks in part to a 1:41.6 anchor from Eddie Campana. St. Andrews went 7:00.54, and The College of Idaho improved 15 seconds for 7:02.32.

Tonight’s finals session begins at 6 p.m. Central time.

“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.”