Courtesy: Liberty Athletics
LYNCHBURG, Va. – After standout performances at the TYR Senior Celebration Meet on Saturday, Liberty senior Payton Keiner and junior Lauren Chennault have been honored by the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) with weekly honors.
Keiner was named CCSA Women’s Swimmer of the Week, while Chennault was tabbed CCSA Women’s Diver of the Week. This is the fourth time in program history that Liberty has received both CCSA weekly awards in the same week, and second this season, as Lindsey Cohee (swimmer) and Maddie Freece (diver) swept the awards on Oct. 27.
Keiner and Chennault helped Liberty extend its CCSA dual-meet winning streak to 24 with a win over Campbell. The Lady Flames have now won 22 straight home dual meets, the third-longest active home winning streak in NCAA Division I women’s swimming & diving.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Keiner receives her third career CCSA Swimmer of the Week honor. She continued her backstroke and relay dominance on Saturday. Keiner led off Liberty’s winning 200 medley relay in 26.24, giving Liberty a 1.14-second lead. The senior won the 100 backstroke in 56.58, 1.99 seconds ahead of second-place Julia Sherlock of Campbell. She narrowly edged out teammate Emma Hazel in the 200 backstroke, 2:01.97 to 2:02.03. In her final regular-season swim as a Lady Flame, she led off Liberty’s winning 400 free relay in 53.18.
Hailing from Coppell, Texas, Chennault has been named CCSA Diver of the Week a program-record four times in her career. Due to Campbell not having divers, the TYR Senior Celebration Meet served as an exhibition in diving and did not count toward NCAA Zone qualifications or program records. She won one-meter diving with a lifetime-best score of 300.00, which would have broken her previous program record of 291.15, which she scored while winning the 2020 CCSA one-meter title. Her 300.00 score would have also been an NCAA Zone qualifying score had it been considered an official meet. She opened the meet with a 262.43 score in three-meter diving, placing second.
Liberty will host the 2021 CCSA Swimming & Diving Championships. The Lady Flames will look for their third straight CCSA title, as the women’s meet takes place at Liberty Natatorium from Feb. 15-17. This will be the second time that Liberty Natatorium will serve as CCSA Championships host, as the 2019 conference meet also took place in Lynchburg.