SCSU swim and dive come back from nationals with six All-Americans
The St. Cloud State swimming Huskies had six athletes earn All-American status at the NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships and four school records were broken during the meet.
Three Huskies earned individual All-American honors by finishing in the top 8 competitors in their event at the championships, which were held March 7-11 in Indianapolis. As a team, the SCSU men finished 13th and, with only one competitor, the Husky women finished 29th as a team.
“This is by far the most All-American awards our men I've ever gotten,” coach Jeff Hegle said. “Women have done well at some NCAA championships and gotten quite a few too and I think actually this is the first year that we've ever had men's relays become all Americans so that’s petty special.”
Senior Abe Townley finished fourth in the 50-yard freestyle, setting a new school record in the process.
Senior Meredith Matchinsky finished fifth in 3-meter diving.
Junior Raf Hendriks finished seventh in the 200-yard backstroke. His time of 1:45.38 broke his own record and he also earned a new school record in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:36.85, bu did not place.
Two relay teams, both of which Townley competed on, also placed high enough to earn the races All-American titles.
The 200-yard medley relay composed of Townley, Hendriks, senior Jayden Porter and junior Emile Dos finished sixth, and the 200-yard freestyle relay of Townley, Hendriks, Dost, and freshman Mason Beck placed seventh.
The 200 medley’s time of 1:26.74 is also a new school record.
“We’ll be better next year," Hegle said. “We have some significant individuals coming in to help and one of our seniors has decided to take a fifth year, Jayden Porter, he’s the one who swims the breaststroke so that's a huge addition. Both the men and women are going to be much better next year.”
This article originally appeared on St. Cloud Times: Huskies compete in DII championship
