ROCHESTER, Minn. - After day the final day of competition at the Rochester Invite, both the women's and men's swimming & diving teams took home first place overall. The women finished first of 10 teams with a score of 987. The men finished first of eight teams with a score of 985. Between the two teams on Sunday, Omaha had six first-place finishes, three second-place, and three third-place. Overall, they had 40 top-eight finishes.
"This was exactly what we needed at the time we need," said head coach
Todd Samland. "We have trained under restricted conditions with our facility being renovated, so we focused on exactly what needed to get done. We trained a little longer for this midseason meet, and the combination of that and the quality served us well. I am excited to start focusing on our conference training and planning for February. A special shout out to our staff for meeting the needs of our athletes. We couldn't have done this weekend with out
Jessica Hessel,
Bryce Hartman,
Eric Sprague, Jacob Molacek, and
Jenna Foss!"
Sunday's action started with the 200 back.
Olivia Theil took the top spot with a time of 2:05.50, while
Carina Monroe placed third with a time of 2:06.67.
Abigail Mitchell and
Mallory Dickey also placed in the top-eight.
Kody Hollingsworth swam a time of 1:50.08 for the men to place second, while
Luke Asbury finished fifth and
Isaac Fletcher seventh.
Payton Easley earned first in the 100 free with a time of 51.33.
Parker Hagemann,
Morgan Baker, and
Olivia Wassink finished consecutively at fourth, fifth, and sixth.
Owen Hoak picked up a second place finish on the men's side with a time of 45.92.
Caleb Miller came in fifth swimming 46.65 in the event.
Annie Leinart took her lone first place finish in the 200 breast leading the way with a time of 2:21.61.
Caroline Gardner,
Jillian Altmaier, and
Payton Krug also earned top-eight placements. For the men, Kyle Petersen earned third with a time of 2:06.08 with
Chas Nolte finishing right behind in fourth with a time of 2:06.14.
Brandon Cheong placed seventh.
Th 100 IM brought first place finishes for both the women and the men Sunday. Gardner swam 59.29 for first, while
Daniel Young posted a time of 50.32. Mitchell and Leinart finished sixth and seventh on the women's side, while Miller,
Logan Kempf, and Nolte placed for the men.
Hailey Matthews took another first-place finish on the weekend in the 200 fly. She swam a time of 2:04.33.
Sadie Khalil finished third overall with a time of 2:11.35.
Bethany Gatlin and
Annika Harthoorn were also in the top-eight for the Maverick women.
Luke Asbury was the men's top placed in second with a time of 1:55.92.
Elijah Clements and
Pharis Musleh entered the mix with sixth and eighth place finishes, respectively.
In the 1650 free, Monroe earned a first-place finish by more than nine seconds. She swam a time of 17:40.22.
Maddie Mather placed fourth with a time of 17:59.68, while
Abby Kohl placed seventh.
Nick Walkley finished fifth on the men's side with a time of 16:20.67. Musleh and
Alex Becker placed back-to-back in seventh and eighth.
The action concluded with the 400 free relay. A team of Easley, Wassink, Hagemann, and Matthews led the pack with a time of 3:27.48. The Maverick women also picked up third place. Harthoorn, Gardner, Baker, and Leinart swam a time of 3:33.87. The Maverick men finished second and third. Hollingsworth, Fletcher, Kempf, and Hoak swam 3:03.87 for second, while Young, Miller, Asbury, and Clements finished third with a time of 3:04.12.
The Omaha women's swimming & diving team returns to action this week. They host Nebraska on Friday, Dec. 10 at 5:30 p.m. The men get a bit of a break and will return after the new year vs. Midland on Jan 14.
