SAN ANTONIO – The 24th-ranked Trinity Tigers ended the non-championship portion of their season with a dual meet against the University of Incarnate Word. The men narrowly lost with a score of 160-125 against this formidable division 1 team. This score is one of the closest in recent history between these two teams, which also came on Senior Day and honored three swimmers and two divers celebrating their final season on the team.
Meet Recap
One such swimmer is
Owen Flynn (Guthrie, Okla. / Heritage Hall), who began the meet today with a fifth-place finish in the 100 back. He was accompanied by
Apollo Aceves (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif. / Trabuco Hills) who earned third place, and
Max Buchwald (Wilsonville, Ore. / Wilsonville) in sixth place. Flynn followed this race with a stellar 200 breaststroke, where he went one of his best ever times not in a tech suit, 2:19.47. Fellow senior,
John Key (El Paso, Texas / Franklin), finished in second place in this event, followed by
Grant Bibza (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) and
Ryan O'Leary (Austin, Texas / Austin) in third and fourth place. This was an incredibly high scoring event for the Tiger breaststrokers. Flynn ended his meet with a 200 IM, where he additionally went one of his best non-championship times of 2:06.62. He was yet again joined by Key, who touched in second place with a time of 1:58.85, as well as Bibza and Aceves in fourth and fifth place.
Aside from joining Flynn in two of his events, Key led off the meet swimming breaststroke on the 200 medley relay, with teammates
Jack Hester (Round Rock, Texas / Cedar Ridge),
Daniel Apostol (Billings, Mont. / Central Catholic), and
Trace Briones (San Antonio, Texas / Health Careers). The relay came in second place, with a time of 1:33.94. Key also swam the 100 breast and placed third, with Apostol getting second with a time of 57.35.
William Walker (Houston, Texas / Westside), the third senior getting recognized, did not echo his teammates' breaststroke prowess, and swam almost entirely different events from Key and Flynn. Walker began with the 200 free, where he earned fourth place, with teammates
Sean Easley (Allen, Texas / Lovejoy) and
Theodore Ho (Sugar Land, Texas / Clements) earning second and third. Walker also got fifth in the 50 free, where Briones posted the top Trinity time in the event of 21.62. In the 100 free,
Chase Hays (Austin, Texas / Anderson) placed second, with Walker following him in third, with times of 48.11 and 48.25 respectively. Walker's last event was the 400 free relay, where he was on the B relay, but the A relay earned second in the event with a cumulative time of 3:09.16.
One of the non-senior events was the 200 fly, where
Nickolas Rotolo (Houston, Texas / Cairo American College) went in a time of 1:56.51 and got second place, with O'Leary placing fifth. Hester secured his backstroke dominance with a decisive win in the 200 back. Ho was a fellow event winner in the 500 free, with an impressive back-half on one of the UIW swimmers. Lastly, Apostol got third place and a lifetime best of 51.53 in the 100 fly. This great showing from all the swimmers helped boost them to their impressive score in this meet.
The Tiger divers also had a great showing today. Although UIW didn't bring any divers, this was still a great opportunity for them to practice their skills. Seniors
Max Rolla Mullis (Ann Arbor, Mich. / Pioneer) and
Ash Meckel (Austin, Texas / The Griffin School) earned first and second place on the 1 and 3 meter boards, with scores of 247.55 and 178.25 respectively.
William Sikes (Pittsboro, N.C. / Northwood) also competed in this meet, earning third with 84.45 points on the 1 meter.
Coach Speak
"We had some really solid swims today," exclaimed Head Coach
Cathleen Pruden. "A lot of our Tigers put together the pieces today to take their races out with confidence and finish them strong and smart. We should have a lot of confidence to carry with us into the SAA Championships! Thanks to our senior men for their leadership. They put together some great final performances at home! Onto Championship season!"
Looking Forward
The next meet that the full team will compete in is the SAA conference championship. This meet will be hosted at Centre College from February 11-14th. This will be the final meet of the season before the NCAA championships in March. In the meantime, the Tigers will continue training hard in anticipation of the culmination of the season.
