Thiago Parravicini Leads Incarnate Word Resurgence on Day Two of Christmas Invite

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, December 17. INCARNATE Word’s Thiago Parravicini already had a stellar performance in the 100 breaststroke this month, posting a 53.42 in the preliminaries at the Texas Invitational. He improved on that tonight with a winning time of 53.36 on the second day of competition at the UIW Christmas Invite.

Parravicini has a lifetime best of 53.04 from this meet last year, a time that would have placed third at the Division II NCAAs last season, but Parravicini could only muster a 54.05 for sixth place. The Brazilian had no competition in the race, with Grand Canyon’s Tom Wahler’s a distant second with a 55.36.

Incarnate Word had a better day in the pool tonight, winning five individual events in a row, as well as two relays after taking only one win on the opening night. Before Parravicini’s 100 breast win, Mehdi El Hazzaz took the men’s 200 free with a 1:37.74, followed by Adrienne Morrow in the women’s 100 breast with a 1:03.73. Morrow’s win came with a new lifetime best, beating the 1:04.09 she swam at the Division II NCAA championships.

The Incarnate Word winning streak continued in the women’s and men’s 100 backstroke, with freshman Ashley Wayman touching in 58.21 to win the women’s event and Andrii Nikishenko posting a 50.06 in the men’s race for the victory.

Incarnate Word’s relay victories came in the women’s 200 medley relay, with the Cardinals posting a 1:44.46 to Grand Canyon’s 1:44.58, and the men’s 800 free relay with a 6:34.79 to GCU’s 6:37.54.

Marcus Schlesinger, a postgrad formerly representing Ouachita Baptist but now training with the Grand Canyon team, won the 100 fly with a 47.14, a lifetime best by four tenths of a second. He also posted the fastest 100 backstroke of the day — and was the only swimmer under 50 seconds — with an exhibition time of 48.57. That was just two tenths off his lifetime best from the NCAA Division II championships.

Grand Canyon’s men’s 200 medley relay team got revenge form the women’s relay loss, posting a narrow victory over Incarnate Word, 1:28.49 to 1:28.77. Parravicini posted an impressive 24.45 breaststroke split for Incarnate Word.

GCU swept the 400 IM races, with the 200 IM winners also taking the longer medley. Hannah Kastigar posted a 4:15.92 in the 400 IM to win by almost 17 seconds over teammate Diana Volk. Kastigar’s swim shattered the team record by 16 seconds. Iegor Lytvenok won the men’s 400 IM with a 3:48.40, holding off a fast-charging David Moore of Incarnate Word, who was second with a 3:49.12.

Rebecca Coan kept the GCU wins coming with a 54.85 in the 100 fly. After the streak of five wins by Incarnate Word, the GCU women took the 800 freestyle relay, winning with a 7:33.85.

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