Grand Rapids, Mich. — Both of the Aquinas College swim and dive teams hosted their home competition of first semester on Saturday (Oct. 19th) against Olivet and Albion. The home contest was a special meet where the Aquinas teams honored their lone graduating senior, Chris Uzunoe-Chin, as the first team member to ever compete in four full seasons. Uzunoe-Chin has played an integral part in building the young program on strong character, academic excellence, great work ethic and being an incredible teammate. The teams swam and dove with heart, dominating both the men's and women's competitions. Aquinas came out on top of the double-dual meet vs. Albion and Olivet.

Here is how the teams competed:

Women
Aquinas College 231.00, Olivet 40.00
Aquinas College 176.00, Albion 114.00

• 200 medley relay of Emersyn Joslin, Emma Dale, Claire Hines and Chloe Boivin set a new school record of 1:50.51, winning the event by .04 seconds.
• It was a distance sweep, with AQ taking the top 3 finishes in the 1,000 freestyle. Dailey Jogan won the 1,000 free with an 11:33.88 - the second fastest time in program history. She was closely followed by Ella Althaver in second and Riley Monahan in third.
• Amelia Edens won the 200 freestyle with a provisional time cut of 2:00.27.
• Joslin dominated the 100 backstroke, winning with a time of 59.86. Emma Hale placed second with a 1:03.57.
• Dale finished second in the 100 breaststroke with a school-record time of 1:10.39, making it the third meet in a row setting a record in the event.
• Adriana Waller and Hines battled it out in the 200 butterfly, with Waller finishing first with the third-fastest time in school history - 2:19.93. Hines finished in second with a 2:28.01.
• Boivin, Addie Osborne and Nolynn Coombs took second through fourth place in the 50 freestyle.
• Taylor Moss set a new personal best score of 175.55 on the 1M board, finishing third overall and less than 5 points off of a national qualifying score. Emma Nibbelink placed 4th with the season-best score of 170.90. Kaitlyn Santaguida, Gionna Bean and Anna Benstead also posted season-best scores on the 1M board.
• Edens, Boivin and Coombs finished second through fourth place in the 100 freestyle, asserting their sprinting dominance. Edens earned a national provisional cut in the event, finishing with the time of 54.82.
• Joslin and Hale went first and second place in the 200 backstroke with a 2:13.52 and 2:21.27 respectively. Meghan Hincher finished fourth with a season-best of 2:26.50.
• Dale continued her record-setting streak in the 200 breaststroke, finishing second with a 2:37.87 - shattering her previous record by nearly 4 seconds. Jogan finished fourth with a 2:43.87 - the fourth-fastest time in school history.
• AQ's distance freestyle crew swept the top 3 finishes in the 500 freestyle, with Waller taking first in a 5:27.92. Althaver finished with a 5:45.52, and Monahan posted a 5:51.55.
• Hines stole the show in the 100 fly, finishing first with a 1:02.26. Osborne took third with a 1:07.00.
• Moss set a new school record on the 3M board with the 6-dive score of 167.00.
• Edens collected her third provisional time standard of the meet in the 200 IM, finishing in second with the time of 2:15.91. Hincher and Hale rounded out the event with 4th and 5th-place finishes respectively.
• The women ended the night with a dominant finish in the 200 freestyle relay, with the women's A (Boivin, Coombs, Joslin and Edens) and B (Waller, Jogan, Osborne and Hines) relays claiming first and second overall.

Men
Aquinas College 240.50, Olivet 15.50
Aquinas College 209.00, Albion College 81.00

• The 200 medley relay of Titus Smith, Tony Parlato, Talon Koppmann and Matt Dumbsky claimed first place with the time of 1:38.93.
• In what was the closest finish of all the races of the day, freshman Lucas Eussen was able to clinch first place by .6 seconds in the 1,000 freestyle with the time of 10:26.12. Freshman Kaleb Barker finished 3rd overall with the time of 10:34.68.
• The Saints had an impressive showing in the 200 freestyle, with Smith winning the event in 1:50.16 - the top time for the team so far this season. Lucas Mondro finished 3rd in 1:51.57, and Conrad Eichbauer in 4th with a 1:53.16,
• Ian Clapp won the 100 backstroke in 56.46, closely followed by Collin Neely in 2nd with a 58.20.
• The Saints claimed the first two finishes in the 100 breaststroke, with Parlato clocking a 1:03.80 and Gryffin Hurley with a 1:07.92.
• Eussen dominated the 200 fly with a 2:06.60, and senior Chris Uzunoe-Chin in third with a 2:21.81.
• The sprinters finished second through fourth in the 50 freestyle, with Talon Koppmann leading the Saints with an impressive 21.65 - the second-fastest time in program history. Dumbsky finished 3rd with a 22.01, and Noah Berns in 4th with a 22.90.
• The divers swept the 1M diving competition, taking first through fourth place out of 6 competitors. Evan Bennett won with the score of 270.1, the third highest score in team history and another national-qualifying score. Troy Borrero placed second with the score of 220.55, earning a national qualifying standard - his first of the season. Sawyer Shank and Collin Alward earned season-best scores and placed 3rd and 4th respectively.
• Dumbsky, Caileb Austin and Berns finished second through fourth place in the 100 freestyle.
• Smith and Clapp took the top two spots in the 200 backstroke, with Smith taking the event with the time of 2:00.30. Joe Rush took 4th place with a personal best time of 2:26.69.
• Parlato and Mondro battled it out for first and second place in the 200 breaststroke, with Parlato winning with a 2:21.52 and Mondro finishing in 2:28.03.
• The men's distance freestylers swept the 500 freestyle, taking the top 3 finishes. Eussen (5:10.16) claimed his third victory of the day, closely followed by Eichbauer (5:12.71) and Barker (5:13.86).
• Koppmann dominated the 100 butterfly, winning the event with a 53.31 and Neely finishing 3rd with a 56.64.
• The divers dominated the 3M competition, taking 1st through 4th place. Bennett demolished his previous school record by nearly 25 points, earning a national invite score of 283.4 points. Borrero earned a national bid by scoring 223.85 points, finishing in second overall. Shank and Alward claimed 3rd (122.5 points) and 4th (115.95 points) place in their career-first 3M competition.
• Parlato, Austin and Anthony Dupuis took 2nd through 4th place in the 200 IM, rounding out the last individual event of the day.
• The men's A 200 free relay of Dumbsky, Eussen, Koppmann and Smith earned a dominant win with the time of 1:28.35.

And here is what Head Coach Kristen Hepp had to share about the teams performances, "I'm incredibly proud of how we performed on the boards and in the water, with wins on both the men's and women's sides. It was an especially meaningful senior day where we honored our solo senior, Chris Uzunoe-Chin, who has made an incredible impact on our young team. Each athlete competed a little harder for him today!

We started our toughest phase of training this week, which can make it difficult for the athletes to feel fresh and explosive for competition. But the best athletes find a way to get the job done, and they rose to the occasion!"

Up Next

Both swim and dive teams will return to watery action on Saturday (Oct. 26) as they will compete at Kalamazoo.