ATHENS, GEORGIA – The University of the Incarnate Word men's swimming and diving team made a big move and the women's team crowned a pair of champions on Thursday on the second day of the CCSA Championships hosted at the University of Georgia's Gabrielson Natatorium. (Results)

The UIW men got back on track on the second day of competition.  They quickly moved up the standings into second place into what is turning out to be a three-way big for the title.  The Cardinals did not win any events, but picked up four runner-up finishes and their depth showed through in the swimming events.

The Cardinals had three men in the top three of the 500-yard freestyle.  Connor Hennessy (San Antonio/Business Careers HS) broke the old conference record and nearly the school record, but had to settle for second with a time of 4:23.03 behind Jonas Gutzat of UMBC.  Aaron Moran (Helotes/Brandeis HS) was fourth in 4:30.14 and Oleksii Morgun (Kiev, Ukraine/Vsesvit) was fifth in 4:33.84.  Nathan Coppock (San Antonio/Johnson HS) won the consolation final in a time of 4:31.53.

In the 200 individual medley, David Moore (San Antonio/Marshall HS) broke the school record with a time of 1:47.00.  He closed strong, but could not Nikola Trajkovic of UMBC at the wall.  UIW then had three men in the top six of the 50-yard freestyle with senior Scott Jonsson (New Braunfels/Canyon HS) swimming the two fastest times of his career to finish third in 20.54.

The Cardinals competed well in 3-meter diving with three men in the top eight, but they still lost ground to UMBC who had four in the top six.  Freshman Brendan Schaffer (Charlotte, NC/South Mecklenburg HS) finished second with 302.20 points.

The 200-yard freestyle relay team of Alex Brouwer (Scottsdale, AZ/Notre Dame Prep), Jonsson, Mehdi El Hazzaz (Casablanca, Morocco/Al Jabr) and Jorge Escarcega (El Paso/Cathedral HS) finished second behind Gardner-Webb in a time of  1:21.33.

"The men made a huge jump today from fifth to second and trail the leader by just 40 points," said UIW head coach Phil Davis.  "We are going to need awesome performances the next two days to complete the climb back to the top."

The Cardinals are currently in second place behind UMBC with 263 points.  UMBC has 303 points while Gardner-Webb is third with 241 points.  NJIT (132), VMI (109) and Howard (58) round out the scoring teams.

The UIW women fell from second place to third place on the second day, but had a pair of outstanding performances.  Senior Kali Lents (San Antonio/Reagan HS), a former NCAA Division II national champion and the 2013-14 CCSA Diver of the Year, capped off her career by sweeping the diving events.  She won the 3-meters on Wednesday and came back to win the 1-meter event on Thursday with 291.05 points.  Teammates Mallory Draper (Victoria/Victoria West HS) and Kimberly Foster (Spring/Oak Ridge HS) finished third and fourth, respectively.

Kali Lents finished her career tonight as a Cardinal and the most successful female diver in UIW history," said Davis.  "She swept both 1 and 3 meter competitions as the defending CCSA Diver of the Year.  I'm very proud and thankful that Kali has competed for us at UIW.  She will be impossible to replace, and we wish her the best moving forward in the next phase of her life.  Kali has been as automatic as you can be as our featured diver. I am very proud of what she and Coach Tommy Law have accomplished for our program."

Freshman Alona Kyselova (Kiev, Ukraine/Tarasa Shevchenko) won the first conference title of her career.  She smashed the school record in the 200-yard individual medley and broke the CCSA meet and overall record by a hundredth of a second in 2:00.28.   "Alona set a new CCSA conference record as she pulled away and won the 200 IM tonight," said Davis.  "I am very proud of Alona and can't wait to see how she grows in swimming."

The Cardinals fell one spot in the standings to third place, but are still having an excellent meet.  Florida Gulf Coast leads the meet with 626 points and they are followed by Liberty (461), UIW (407), Georgia Southern (383.5), Gardner-Webb (340.5), Campbell (191), UNC-Asheville (174), North Florida (152), VMI (119), North Carolina A&T (114) and Howard (68).
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