Swimming

2024 Summit League Day 2: Denver Women Extend Lead, Lindenwood Men Stay In The Hunt

February 24, 2024

2024 SUMMIT LEAGUE SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Wednesday, February 21 – Saturday, February 24, 2024
Minneapolis, Minn.
Jean J. Freeman Aquatic Center
SCY (25 yards)
Teams: Denver, Eastern Illinois, Omaha, South Dakota, South Dakota State, St. Thomas, Lindenwood, Southern Indiana
Defending Champion: Denver women (10x), Denver men (2x) – [results]
Meet Central
Live Results
Live Stream ($)
Day 2 Finals Results (PDF)

The Denver women stamped their authority on Day 2 of the Summit League Championships in Minneapolis, distancing themselves from the field with eyes on an 11th straight title.

On the men’s side, however, things remain close as Lindenwood had a strong showing on Thursday, sitting just 22 points back of Denver with two days to go.

WOMEN’S RECAP

Denver got off to a strong start during the finals session when sophomore Nika Spehar roared to victory in the 500 free in a time of 4:49.53, moving up two spots from her freshman year with a four-second lifetime best.

Spehar led a 1-2 finish with freshman Sabrina Rachjaibun, who clocked 4:51.57 for 2nd, while Omaha’s Hailey Matthews (4:53.19) was 3rd and defending champion Daniela Alfaro Saldana (4:54.28) fell to 4th.

Pioneer junior Jessica Maeda won her third straight title in the 200 IM, touching .02 slower than last year in 2:00.61, using a 33.59 breaststroke split to solidify the three-peat while leading a 1-2-3 finish for Denver. Sophomore Mina Ada Solaker (2:01.52) and fifth-year Sarah Turchanik (2:02.51) rounded out the podium.

The last two events in the pool were headlined by South Dakota junior Emily Kahn, who did exactly what she did last season: Win a hotly-contested 50 free and then lead the Coyotes to a narrow win in the 200 free relay.

Kahn chipped four one-hundredths off her lifetime best and school record in 22.64 to edge out Denver’s Erika Remington (22.80) in the 50 free final, mirroring last season’s result which saw Kahn win by .01, 22.74 to 22.75.

In the 200 free relay, Kahn bettered her program record once again on the lead-off leg in 22.62—just shy of the conference record of 22.55—and was followed by Skyler Leverenz (23.03), Christina Spomer (22.98) and Carson White (22.67) as South Dakota clocked 1:31.30 to edge out Denver (1:31.71).

The Pioneers’ team featured Remington (22.96), Megan Lucyshyn (22.88), Ines Marin (23.02) and Ali Beay (22.85).

Denver had a third win on the day come from Olivia Gordon in the 1-meter diving event, as she posted a score of 276.35 to lead Omaha’s Darby Drake (270.85).

With those two event wins, South Dakota holds a sizeable cushion on Omaha and Lindenwood in the race for 2nd, while the Mavericks and Lions find themselves locked in a battle for 3rd.

Team Standings

Denver, 359
South Dakota, 227.5
Nebraska Omaha, 191
Lindenwood, 185.5
South Dakota State, 103
EIU, 86
Southern Indiana, 84
St. Thomas, 70

MEN’S RECAP

The Lindenwood men were on fire on Day 2, winning three of the four events including a record-breaking performance from Matheo Mateos-Mongelos in the 200 IM.

Mateos, a senior from Paraguay, used the fastest backstroke split in the field by over a second (26.29) to hold off defending champion Marco Nosack and win the 200 IM in a time of 1:45.58, lowering Nosack’s Summit League Record of 1:46.19 set last year.

Denver’s Nosack also went under the old record in 1:45.81.

Another record nearly fell in the next event, as Lindenwood’s Elliott Irwin defended his title in the 50 free in 19.25, lowering his best time set in the 2023 prelims (19.40) while nearing the conference record of 19.17 set by Denver’s Sid Farber in 2020.

Denver junior Donat Fabian also went sub-20 in 19.64, lowering his PB of 19.70.

The Lions kept the momentum going into the last event of the night, as Irwin blitzed a 19.06 anchor leg in the 200 free relay to give Lindenwood a comeback win over Denver in 1:18.50.

Irwin was joined by Patryk Winiatowski (20.30), Ondrej Dusa (19.62) and Piotr Kowalczyk (19.52), while Denver’s team of Fabian (19.66), Frank Tirone (19.63), Nikola Tadic (19.96) and Brandon Chapman (20.02) finished in 1:19.27.

In the first men’s event of the session, Kieran Watson gave Denver a victory in the 500 free in a time of 4:19.52, knocking nearly two seconds off his personal best time to win by over five seconds. Watson was the runner-up last season.

In the team race, Lindenwood is keeping things close thanks to their trio of victories, while Omaha, South Dakota State and South Dakota are locked in a tight battle for 3rd.

Team Standings