RESULTS
ODESSA – In its first competition in program history on Sunday, the Wayland Baptist swim team had 10 athletes turn in qualifying times for the NAIA national meet in March. While the final scores showed both the Pioneer men (129-70) and women (132-36) falling to the University of Texas-Permian Basin, WBU head coach Alyson Hannan was proud of her athletes in their first collegiate competition.
"We did a really good job for our first meet," Hannan said. "The kids were excited about the first meet, and they stepped up and raced hard. I think it was important for them to get in the habit of getting up there and giving it their best."
Gabriel Phillips and
Hugo Gallegos led the way for the men, winning four of their five events and placing second in another. Phillips won the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 52.51 seconds and was second in the 100-yard backstroke, just .15 seconds behind the winner. Gallegos won both of his events, finishing the 50-yard freestyle in 22.22 seconds and 100-yard freestyle in 48.74 seconds.
Phillips and Gallegos swam with
Josiah Morales and
Nathan McCormick to win the 400-yard freestyle relay in 3:16.92, something of which Hannan was especially proud.
"Our men's 400 relay team did awesome," she said. "They were really fun and exciting to watch."
Bjoern Globke also put in a solid performance for the Pioneers, finishing second in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard individual medley in times of 1:01.27 and 2:01.82, respectively.
On the women's side, Alyxus Chauarria and
Vianney Trujillo paced the Pioneers. Chauarria swam the 100-yard butterfly in 1:21.77, finishing third, and the 50-yard freestyle in 33:33, taking fourth place. Trujillo won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 34.29 and placed second in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:21.95.
Also competing for the women were
Hailey Budnick and
Olivia Campbell. Budnick competed in the 200-yard freestyle in 2:50.13 and the 100-yard freestyle in 1:17.83. Campbell swam the 100-yard backstroke in 1:21.21 and the 50-yard freestyle in 32.17.
Hannan said she has set the bar high for the Pioneers in their first season, but even she was surprised at her squad's out-of-the-blocks performance on Sunday.
"We did better than I was expecting," she said. "Even though I was already expecting big things, they came out and surprised me. We had 10 times that made the national bid, which is great."
Phillips, as well as the 400-yard relay team, met the "A" natinal qualifying standard, while Globke, Morales, Gallegos and Trujillo all met the "B" standard.
Despite Hannan's praise for her team in their first ever meet, she realizes that they still have a lot of work ahead, even before their next meet on Wednesday.
"We're going to have a really hard training day early this week to get ready for Wednesday," she said. "We have a little bit of work to do to get better distance-wise, but we'll do what we can between now and then and go from there."
Wayland travels to Abilene to take on McMurry University at 5:30 Wednesday. The Pioneers will then get some needed rest before their next match against Adams State (Colo.) on Nov. 2.
