Kansas City, MO – After helping lead the UC men's swimming and diving program to a 6-0 record and being ranked fifth in the NAIA, Ruben Gonzalez de Oliveira concludes the opening month of competition by taking home NAIA Swimmer of the Month honors, the national office announced Friday. During the month of the season Gonzalez de Oliveira earned back-to-back MSC Swimmer of the Week honors and has posted seven wins.

Oliveira has been dominant in his two appearances this season. So far this season, the sophomore from Madrid, Spain is ranked inside the top five of NAIA in five different events and has achieved four NAIA provisional cuts. Of his seven wins, Gonzalez de Oliveira has won all four of his individual events, while being apart of three relay wins.

In his first appearance Oliveira led the way for the Pats as he hit two provisional cuts in a tri-meet against Union and Midway. He started that day with a first-place finish in the 100 free with a time of 46.04, which was his first provisional cut of the year. That time put him as the third fastest swimmer in the NAIA at that event. Then in the 200 free, he hit another provisional cut as the sophomore touched the wall in 1:42.32, which ranks him fourth fastest in the NAIA.  Gonzalez de Oliveira opened the double-dual meet anchoring UC's winning 200 medley relay that clocked a time of 1:35.17.

A week later, Gonzalez de Oliveira notched another pair of wins this time competing in the 50 free and the 100 free. In the 50 free he achieved his first national cut of the day as he pulled away from the competition and touched the wall first with a time of 21.35. That is currently the fourth fastest time in the NAIA and is over a half second faster than the provisional standard. He followed that up with his second win of the day in the 100 free. Gonzalez de Oliveira clocked a time of 46.39 in that event to earn is second provisional cut as that time is two seconds faster than the standard. When it came time for relay Oliveira and his team finished both the 200-medley relay (1:34.55) and the 400 freestyle (3:10.90) at the top of the podium. In both events they had the third fastest time in the NAIA.

This is the first time that the seven-time NAIA All-American has garnered NAIA Swimmer of the month honors. 

Cumberlands has this weekend off before heading up to Shawnee State on November 19^th to take on the Bears at 1 pm.

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