Both the men and women’s swimming and diving teams earned a second-place finish this past weekend at the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) Swimming and Diving Championships in Little Rock, Ark.
Both teams, including Head Coach Jim Henry, took home honors after the meet as well.
Craig Jollands was selected as the 2005 Co-Outstanding Men’s Swimmer alongside Western Kentucky’s Karl Swanson. Karen Iverson’s performance secured her the title of 2005 Outstanding Women’s Swimmer all to herself.
And Henry was selected as the 2005 SBC Women’s Coach of the year, a title that went last year to Bill Powell of Western Kentucky and Mark McFarland of New Mexico State.
The three-day event, which began Thursday at the Donaghey Aquatic Center at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock, saw Western Kentucky University take first-place with final scores of 972 for the men and 851 for the women.
The results at this year’s SBC Championships for the women mirrored those of last season, as they finished in second-place behind Western Kentucky.
The Pioneer men totaled 708 points and the Pioneer women put up 762 points after a fine performance on Saturday.
Kelsey Tortura, Michaela Amereller and Karen Iverson each nabbed individual event titles on the final day.
The 400-yard relay team composed of Lauren Miranda, Lauren Bortnowski, Jackie Bradford and Amereller also won a title on Saturday with a time of 3:27.18.
Overall, the women collected 10 titles, including Iverson who won all three of her individual events, and set numerous pool and school records.
With Iverson’s win in the 400 I.M on Friday, she got an NCAA consideration time for nationals. Tortura also won two individual events including the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 56.64 on Friday and the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 2:03.18 on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the men’s team took home three championship titles in all and even with a strong showing overall, did not have the same surge as the women on Saturday.
With no first-place winners on the final day, the men had three second-place finishes with Derek Shaw in the 200-yard breaststroke and Craig Jollands in the 200-yard backstroke and Nathan West in the1650-yard freestyle. The two individual titles for the men both came courtesy of Jollands. One in the 500-yard freestyle came on day one and the other in the 200-yard freestyle happened on day two.
The sole men’s relay title was the result of a 6:44.25 school record finish by Michael Peterson, Brian Flaherty, James Monaghan and Jollands.
The 200-yard medley relay team of Matt Diotte, Marcus Christianson, Daniel Mosivais and Peterson also set a school record with a third-place finish time of 1:22.83 on Thursday.
