Trinity All-America Performances Highlight Day One at NCAA Swim/Dive Championships

Trinity All-America Performances Highlight Day One at NCAA Swim/Dive Championships

SHENANDOAH, Texas - The 2015 NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships got underway Wednesday at the Conroe ISD with preliminaries and finals contested in eight swimming events in addition to the women opening the diving portion of the competition on the three-meter board. The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, along with the city of Shenandoah, Texas, is serving as host of the championships. Results | Team Scores | Schedule | Live Scoring

After breaking the SCAC open mark with a time of 20.09 in the morning prelim session (seeding him fifth in the championship final), Culberson finished in third place in the evening session in a time of 20.02 to secure his second consecutive all-America performance in the event and break his hours-old conference open record.

He is the first SCAC men's swimmer to twice earn all-America honors in the 50 free and just the fourth male all time. The conference sent student-athletes to the 50 free awards stand for three straight years in 1998 (Joseph Morris of Trinity), 1999 (Sean Valentine of Rose-Hulman) and 2000 (Chuck Seymour of Sewanee).  

In action above the pool, Trinity's Danielle Freund and Sarah Kate Mrkonich competed on the 3-meter board, and the freshmen duo became the seventh and eighth different divers from Trinity to produce all-America performances in the sport. Freund placed fifth in the event with a score of 462.35 to lay claim to the program's 21st all-American performance (top eight finish) in the event while Mrkonich was 15th (396.75) and earned honorable mention all-America honors.

Senior Lydia Jones of Trinity earned honorable mention all-America honors with her 16th place finish in the 50 free. The 2015 SCAC Female Swimmer-of-the-Meet finished in a time of 23.82.

The Trinity 200 medley men's relay team of Isaac Johnson, Adam Thomas, Stephen Culberson and Kevin Thomas finished just one place out of the consolation final - coming in 17th during the prelim session in a time of 1:32.37.

In other action involving SCAC student-athletes, the Trinity women placed 26th in the 200 medley relay. The team of Lydia Jones, Lindsay Hagmann, Bethany Rysak and Lauren Cuda finished in a time of 1:50.69.

In the overall standings, the Trinity men are tied with former SCAC member DePauw University for 13th place with 16 points. Defending champion Kenyon College leads the way with 109 points. Emory University is second with 88 points.

On the women's side, Trinity has 17 points and is tied with Hope College for 15th place. Defending champion Emory University leads the way after Day One on the women's side with 135.5 points followed closely by Denison University with 124 points. 

Action continues tomorrow morning and runs through Saturday evening - culminating with the crowning of the 2015 men's and women's national team champions. 

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