Columbus, GA – Freshman Ali Pecore rose to the challenge in her first collegiate individual event as she won the 500 free to highlight the second day of competition at the NAIA National Championships Thursday night.  The Patriots notched five All-American performances to score 150 points to be fourth in the team standings.

Pecore entered the night as the second seed in the 500 free after clocking a 5:06.82 in prelims this morning.  The Oshkosh, WI native swam a tactical race going through the midpoint in the race at 2:30.69, which was almost six seconds behind the leader.  From that point Pecore negative split the final 250 yards, including posting a 28.34 final split to erase that deficit and edge out Marine Lecomte of Keiser by 0.09 seconds to win her first NAIA national championship. 



The freshman becomes just the seventh Patriot in program history to win an individual national title and the fourth freshman to accomplish that feat.  It also marks the third consecutive NAIA National Championship that a Cumberlands swimmer has won the 500 free as Mendy de Rooi took top honors in 2019 and 2020. 

UC opened the finals with Anastasiia Shatalova, Hanne te Velthuis, Riley Cerqueira, and Rebecca Loftus teaming up to place fourth in the 200 free relay.  The quartet posted a season-best time of 1:36.72.

Maria Basto tallied All-American honors in the 200 IM finished with a time of 2:06.61 to finish fifth.  That time was three seconds faster than her prelims time and is the third fastest time in program history. 

In one-meter diving, Emma Lehmkuhl notched her first NAIA All-American accolade after placing fifth in the event with a 178.35.

In the 50 free, te Velthuis clocked a 24.36 to finish 11^th, while Loftus touched the wall in 24.59 to score points for UC. 

Isabella Cooksey earned five points for Cumberlands for her 12^th place finish in the 500 free.  The freshman touched the wall in 5:12.37.

Cumberlands closed out the night with Basto, Cooksey, te Velthuis, and Pecore clocking a 3:54.01 to finish fifth in the 400 medley relay.

The Patriots will return to the water tomorrow for day three of the NAIA National Championships.  Prelims are set for 9 a.m. with finals beginning at 5 p.m.

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