Two days into Delta State’s Christmas Invite, the Statesmen and Lady Statesmen are on fire, shattering 11 school records, some of them multiple times and by multiple swimmers.
The Lady Statesmen are the big winners so far, breaking multiple school and pool records, but several teams have made major rewrites to their own record books over the first two days.
Delta State leads the women’s meet by 20 over Lindenwood, and the Lindenwood men sit in first followed by Delta State.
The meet continues Monday before wrapping up on Tuesday.
Women’s Meet
Melanie Tombers has been the star so far for Delta State. The freshman broke school records in the first two individual events back-to-back, winning both, and added another win and school mark on day 2.
Both records Tombers took down on day 1 were actually broken by teammates earlier in the day. In the 500 free, Delta State junior Dani Meerholz won the B final, breaking her own school record and going 4:55.49. But one heat later, Tombers took the record herself, going 4:52.06 to blow away the field and break the pool record as well.
The next event was the 200 IM – Delta State freshman Kierstin Page came in with the top seed after breaking a school record in prelims, but Tombers again stole the record at the last minute, winning the event in 2:04.06.
Tombers also won the 400 IM on Sunday night, going 4:19.72 for her third individual school record of the night.
Delta State also got a pair of wins from Anastasia Klyarovskay. The freshman went 56.12 to win the 100 fly on day 2, and later in the session came back to take the 100 back in 54.93, a new school record.
Lindenwood sits second for the women, taking home the title in the 1000 free with Alecia McGillivray‘s 10:07.78. Her teammate Kyleigh Troxel took second place in the event in 10:10.04. Meanwhile Delta State freshman Kim Barna was third, breaking a school record in 10:14.64. West Florida’s Karisa Kostecki broke her school record in the event as well, taking 9th overall.
West Florida has won three events over the first two days and set several other school records. Sophomore Peggy de Villiers went 23.32 to break the old pool record of 23.38 after tying it in prelims. That’s also a West Florida school record. Freshman Carla Robles completed the 1-2 sweep for the Argonauts in the 50. Anna Macht won the other individual race for West Florida, going 1:04.41 in the 100 breast, a new school record. She also set West Florida marks in the 200 IM and 400 IM.
Those three combined with Emily Mitchell to win the 200 free relay, going 1:34.85 and breaking a school record. Delta State was second, breaking their school record in 1:35.67.
In fact, both Delta State and West Florida have broken school records in all four relays swum so far. Besides that 200 free relay that West Florida took, Delta State hasn’t lost a relay yet – winning the 200 medley (1:44.76), 400 medley (3:48.69) and 800 free (7:30.73) relay events.
Limestone college got a win from Emily Reh in the 200 free. She went 1:52.27 for a new school record.
West Florida’s Josie McKee also swept the diving events so far, scoring 407.30 on 1-meter and 462.60 on 3-meter.
Men’s Meet
Lindenwood has been all over the men’s meet, winning 9 of 15 events so far. Sylwester Borowicz-Skoneczny won the 500 free and the 1000, going 4:27.27 in the 500 and hitting an NCAA A cut in the 1000 with a 9:07.96. That’s also a school record for Lindenwood – amazingly the top 3 Lindenwood finishers were all under the previous school record while sweeping the top three spots.
Lindenwood also took two relays, both on Sunday. The 400 medley team of Ramunas Paknys, Mateusz Pacholczyk, Victor Munoz and Ivars Akmentins went 3:17.68 and the 800 free relay of Paknys, Akmentins, Coby Friedhoff and Gustavo Silva Santa went 6:37.68.
On day one, Lindenwood swept the individual events, with Borowicz-Skoneczny’s 500, a 1:49.41 in the 200 IM from Ramunas Paknys and a 20.47 50 free from Ivars Akmentins.
Lindenwood also swept the diving events, with David Cochran scoring 395.45 on 1-meter and his teammate Schyler Hohenberger taking the 3-meter board in 515.60.
Felix Engel also won the 400 IM for Lindenwood, going 3:52.10.
Delta State sits second for the men, winning the 200 medley relay in 1:31.30 to finish Saturday night. The relay was made up of Yvan Nys, Toby Tombers, Vlad Zinca and Bear Iles. Zinca also won the 100 fly in 48.62 and Nys took the 100 back with a time of 49.40.
Other wins went to Limestone freshman Tobias Feigl in the 100 breast (54.54) and Missouri Science and Technology’s Jonathan Glaser in the 200 free (1:39.69). In addition, Feigl swam a leg of Limestone’s winning 200 free relay which went 1:22.04. He was joined by Sean Gunn, Douglas Trigo and Christian Larsen.