Incarnate Word Swimming Off to Strong Start at Christmas Invitational

Photo Credit: Kyle Staggs

SAN ANTONIO – The Incarnate Word swimming and diving teams picked up multiple wins to open their own Christmas Invitational on Friday night at The Aquatic Center at Palo Alto College.

Incarnate Word Press Release

The University of the Incarnate Word swimming and diving teams opened their annual UIW Christmas Invitational with a number of strong performances on Friday at the Palo Alto College Aquatic Center.

The UIW women are currently in third place with 346 points. They trail Rice (606.5) and North Texas (456) while University of Houston is in fourth with 310.5 points.

“Our women really got things going tonight in the 500 freestyle,” said UIW head coach Phil Davis. “I am very happy to see Mikali Shedd (Universal City/Judson HS) drop seven seconds from this morning’s prelims. Our heads were in a great place and it showed by our times.”

Davis was particularly impressed with the team’s newest member Alona Kyselova (Kiev, Ukraine/Tarasa Shevchenko) who finished second in the 200-yard individual medley and swam the third leg on the third place 400-yard medley relay team. “I felt like Alona had a great swim and with more practice she could break 2:00 in the 200 IM,” said Davis.

Kyselova touched the wall in 2:01.60, just off the school record by a few tenths of a second and the #2 time in school history. She teamed with Abby Meyer (Austin/Bowie HS), Celeste Morgen (San Antonio/Johnson HS) and Lana Nguyen (Kiev, Ukraine/NPD) in the 400 medley relay to clock a time of 3:47.72, the second best in school history. Nguyen also added a runner-up finish in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 23.15 after posting a faster time in the prelims. “Lana just continues to get the job done with every swim,” added Davis.

“For the men, Connor Hennessy really put together a strong 500-yard freestyle,” said Davis. “He was a little off in our last meet coming off finals exams, but looked comfortable and put together a good race.”

Hennessy (San Antonio/Business Careers HS) won the 500 freestyle by nearly four seconds in 4:25.44 over teammate David Moore (San Antonio/Marshall HS) who posted a strong finish of 4:29.28. The 1-2 finish helped put the Cardinals ahead of Missouri S&T in the men’s meet.

Alex Brouwer (Scottsdale, AZ/Notre Dame Prep) won the 50-yard freestyle in 20.60 and swam and swam on a pair of winning relay teams. He joined with Mehdi El Hazzaz (Casablanca, Morocco/Al Jabr), Scott Jonsson (New Braunfels/Canyon HS) and Kaulen Applin (Houston/MacArthur HS) to win the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:22.11. He came back in the final event of the night to anchor the winning 400-yard medley relay team of Jorge Escarcega (El Paso/Cathedral HS), Oleksii Chokh (Kovel, Ukraine/PRC) and Moore in 3:21.61.

“Alex took care of business in the 50 freestyle and was a leader in both relays,” said Davis.

The Cardinals won both diving events that were contested. Kali Lents (San Antonio/Reagan HS) won the women’s 1-meter springboard with 274.45 points while Brendan Schaffer (Charlotte, NC/Mecklenburg HS) won the men’s 3-meter springboard with 278.00 points.

Results: Incarnate Word Christmas Invitational

 

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