ST. PETERS, Mo. – The Savannah College of Art and Design men's swimming team moved up to fourth place Friday (March 5) at the NAIA National Championships at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
SCAD moved up one position to fourth in the standings with 287 points. Fresno Pacific University leads the competition with 466.50 points, while defending champion California Baptist has 364. Event host Lindenwood University is third with 342 points.
Thomas Gibson was the lone SCAD swimmer to claim a title on the day. Gibson, a senior from Sevierville, Tenn., won the men’s 100-yard breaststroke title for the third time in his career. Gibson, who has five NAIA individual titles, claimed the event with a time of 55.66. Last year was the only year Gibson didn’t win the event in his career. Gibson finished ahead of teammates
Mike Lawrence, who came in second (56.31), and
Nat Emmett, who came in fifth (56.74).
Alex Graudins, who won the 500 freestyle event Thursday (March 4), nearly had another win for the Bees as he came in second place in the 200 freestyle in a university-record time of 1:39.45.
Bartos Scharmach also set a university record as he shaved three seconds off the SCAD record as he placed fourth in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:05.04. Teammate
Stephen Sullivan came in sixth with a time of 4:05.57.
Vitali Pushkar-Verbitsky finished fourth in the 100 butterfly with a time of 49:41. The 400 medley relay team of Sullivan, Lawrence,
Chris Wilson and Graudins also finished in fourth place with an university-record time of 3:22.64.
The NAIA championships concludes Saturday (March 6) with preliminaries at 10 a.m. Central and the finals beginning at 6 p.m. Events to be competed include the 1,650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly and 400 freestyle relay.