Results SAN ANTONIO – What Alyson Hannan called a "weird" meet turned out to be a fantastic one for the Wayland Baptist fourth-ranked men's and women's swimming and diving teams as they wrapped up the three-day Trinity Shootout here Sunday.
The WBU swim coach said the meet hosted by Trinity University was beset by late starting times, late finishes and timing issues.
"It was a rollercoaster of a meet…lots of ups and downs," Hannan said. "Some things were kind of crazy, but it's over and we did really well, so I'm happy."
The Pioneer men finished third out of seven teams while the men came away fifth. Other competing schools were Trinity, Texas-Permian Basin, Southwestern, McMurry, Henderson State (Ark.), and Soka (Calif.).
The bigger picture, however, is how well the Pioneers swam, with several posting national cuts, others improving their cuts, and some recording lifetime-best times.
"The guys' relays did fantastic. They stayed competitive with one of the top 25 (NCAA Division II) teams in the nation," Hannan said. "The women's team (did) the same thing. There were great things across the board."
The coach said junior
Ethan Nicholson was "phenomenal" on Saturday when he faced three difficult individual swims and qualified for nationals in all three. "They are some of the toughest races out there," Hannan said.
She called the performance of
Henri Guenther "fantastic" as the freshman shined in a new event for him, the 500 freestyle. Another freshman,
Andrea Bond, posted lifetime bests in all of her races, and junior
Ayrial Hiracheta logged her first national cut in the 200 free.
"Everybody did fantastic. If I could single them all out I would. It was a good meet across the board," Hannan said. "If they had their national cut, they got faster. A lot of our performances will put us among the top in the nation.
"We swam fast and represented ourselves well. I had lots of complements from lots of teams on how good we are this year. It was a fun meet to go to."
The meet represented WBU's final fall competition as the swimmers now look forward to their winter training Dec. 28 in Colorado Springs where their next competition is scheduled for Jan. 7 against Colorado College and Ohio Northern.
