Prelim / Final

Wooster, OH – The Patriots men's swimming and diving team opened the College of Wooster Invite with three new program records, including two from Jokubas Jankauskas. The Pats had 19 swimmers advance into the finals for the 50 and 500 freestyle, and the 200 IM. UC currently sits in first place with 616.5 points.

Preliminaries

The morning started with the 500 free.  Kacper Sobieszuk (4:42.18) and Will Gilbert (4:43.95) both hit provisional standards on their way to earning a spot in the "A" finals. Lucca Zhigalin finished with a time of 4:52.50, followed by Trey Wolfram at 4:54.01 and Gabriel Eriksson at 4:55.97, to earn spots in the "B" final.

In the 200 IM, the top six finishers hit provisional standards, starting with the swimmers who earned a spot in the "A" final. Ruben Gonzalez de Oliveira was the fastest Patriot with a time of 1:52.54, while Jokubas Jankauskas finished with a time of 1:54.39. Andres Caicedo touched the wall in 1:55.59 and Evan Hawkins rounded out the "A" final for the Pats as he finished in 1:57.20.  For the "B" final both Peyton Berter and Mikolaj Kala hit provisional standards. Berter had a time of 1:57.38, while Kala had a time of 1:57.83. Marcos Del Vado Sanz also earned a spot in the "B" final with a time of 1:59.46. Jakub Zaremba will be in the "C" final as he finished in 2:01.42.

Cumberlands finished of the morning prelim session by having six swimmers reach the finals, while four hit provisional cuts in the 50 free. Ruthiiki Satti led the way for the Pats with a time of 21.46 followed by Creed Farthing (21.55) and Daniel Ruiz Ramis (21.69). All three will be featured in the "A" final. Making the "B" final was Eli Henry (21.82), and Thomas Holzkamm (21.99). Holzkamm had to win a swim off to earn his spot in the "B" final, which he did and finished the swim off in a time of 21.73, and that time was good enough for a provisional cut.  Then in the "C" final Nathan Souza will be featured as he finished in 22.03.

Finals

Jankauskas had the best swim in school history as he came in first place in the 200 IM as he touched the wall 1:50.60 to take hold of first place in the program record book. The freshman clipped Libor Janek record of 1:50.79, which was set back in 2000 and is the third fastest in the NAIA this season.  Gonzalez also set a new personal best as he touched the wall in 1:50.64 for second place, and holds the fourth fastest in the NAIA. Caicedo came in fifth after he finished in 1:53.86. Finishing out the "A" final was Hawkins (1:56.49), who came in seventh. In the "B" final, Berter led the pack as he finished in ninth with a time of 1:55.43, followed by Kala (1:56.15) in tenth.  Del Vado Sanz touched the wall in 1:57.66 for 12^th place, while Zaremba (1:58.77) came in 18^th place.

In the 400 medley, the team of Jankauskas, Leon Irmer, Sobieszuk, Caicedo set a new program record as they finished in first with a time of 3:20.07. The quartet smashed the previous school record of 3:21.42, which was set back in 2018. Jankauskas led off the medley relay splitting a time of 49.24 during the 100 back, which also notched his second individual school record of the meet.  That time was almost a half second faster than Zach Johnson's mark of 49.83, which was set in 2013 and is the fastest time in the NAIA this season.  

In the 500 free finals, Gilbert was the fastest Patriot as he came in second with a time of 4:38.92. That time puts him as the seventh fastest swimmer in the NAIA and in Cumberlands history. Sobieszuk touched the wall in third with a time of 4:40.47. In the "B" final, Eriksson finish in 4:50.06 for ninth place, followed by Wolfram (4:51.40) in 10^th and Zhigalin (4:51.87) in 11^th.

The 50 free had Satti come in fourth with a time of 21.41 seconds, followed by Farthing (21.42) in fifth and Ramis (21.43) in sixth. In the "B" final, Holzhamm came in 10^th at a 21.72 time. Henry came in 12^th as he touched the wall in 21.89 seconds, while Souza finished in 21.89 seconds for 18^th place.

Cumberlands will hit the pool tomorrow morning for day two of the College of Wooster Invite. The prelims with start at 10 am followed by diving at 2 pm, and the finals at 6 pm.

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