Championship Central |
Winners Thread
ELKHART, Ind. – Lindenwood University earned its first-ever Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) Women’s Swimming and Diving crown on Saturday at the Elkhart Health & Aquatics Centerin Elkhart, Indiana, totaling a league-record 1,781 points.
The Lions fended off a surging University of Indianapolis, who finished as the runner-up with 1,778 points. Four-time defending Conference champion Drury University placed third, earning 1,741 points in the four-day event.
McKendree University (839), Truman State University (757.5), Lewis University (625), University of Missouri-St. Louis (623), William Jewell College (353), and Maryville University (307.5) closed out the final team rankings.
UIndy’s 400 freestyle relay team nearly gave the Greyhounds a chance at the title, breaking the GLVC record in the event with a time of 3:20.70. Krystal Caylor anchored the relay, who also placed second in the 100 free earlier in the evening behind teammate
Marizel van Jaarsveld. Overall, van Jaarsveld claimed two gold medals and a pair of third-place finishes.
Lindenwood’s
Beata Maruszczyk earned the gold in the 200 breaststroke, touching the wall in 2:13.72.
Drury teammates Laura Pareja and
Allison Weber added to their respective collection of medals this week, with the latter smashing the league standard in the 1650 free by more than three seconds with a time of 16:39.89. Weber finished with two first-place finishes and a bronze medal.
Pareja won the 200 backstroke on Saturday, adding to her 100 back gold medal from Friday evening. The junior out of Spain earned first in both individual backstroke events this week.
In all, five GLVC records were broken over the course of four days.
Lindenwood’s head coach
Jason Owen finished off the sweep, earning the 2021 GLVC Women’s Coach of the Year award just hours removed from being voted by his peers atop the men’s leaders. It is now his second as part of the GLVC, third in his career on the women’s side, and sixth overall while at Lindenwood.
Additionally, the league recognized nine GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award honorees. The student-athletes chosen are individuals who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. These individuals must also be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. The honorees are now eligible to become one of their school’s two Spalding Sportsmanship Award winners, which will be announced at the end of the academic year. The complete list of women’s swimming and diving honorees can be found below.
WOMEN’S SWIMMER OF THE YEAR:
Bec Cross, Drury
WOMEN’S CO-DIVERS OF THE YEAR:
Mikaela Starr, UIndy & Elle Christie, Lindenwood
WOMEN’S FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR:
Binna Traustadottir, UIndy
WOMEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR:
Jason Owen, Lindenwood
GLVC JAMES R. SPALDING SPORTSMANSHIP AWARD HONOREES
Drury: Karianne Reinersten
UIndy: Katie Thomas
Lewis: Stephanie Palczyynski
Lindenwood: Lillie Schafer
Maryville: Hannah Schrag
McKendree: Regan Gubera
Missouri-St. Louis: Olivia Fiorina
Truman State: Nicole Willis
William Jewell: Kelsey Lanterman
GLVC JAMES R. SPALDING SPORTSMANSHIP WOMEN’S SWIMMING & DIVING TEAM AWARD
Lindenwood