March 3, 2007

SATURDAY'S FINAL RESULTS

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - On a day when three NAIA Swimming & Diving Championship meet records were broke, the California Baptist University Lancers were crowned National Champions in both men's and women's swimming & diving. The Lancer men won going away, scoring 937.5 points with its nearest competitor, Lindenwood (Mo.), finishing the competition with 499.

The Cal Baptist women also enjoyed a comfortable lead at meet's end, scoring 738.5 to beat Simon Fraser (B.C.), who tallied 584 through all 40 events in the championship meet, which was held at San Antonio's Palo Alto Natatorium.

In the men's 200-yard butterfly, Cal Baptist's Jan Tichy helped earn the Lancers the title with a record-breaking win, posting a time of 1:47.48 for his second title and record of the 2007 event. Niels Muntzenburger also posted a record time to finish second in the 200 butterfly, finishing at 1:47.83, 0.36 seconds behind Tichy, who was named Men`s Swimmer of the Year following the event.

Simon Fraser's Kathryn Rosbert, who was named Women's Swimmer of the Year, posted a record time of 16:43.37 in the 1,650-yard freestyle, earning one of her two titles on the day. Her second title came in the Women's 400-yard freestyle relay, as the SFU team finished in 3:28.99, winning by almost two seconds.

In the Women's 100-yard freestyle, Jenelle Furuto of California Baptist won with a time of 51.81, while in the Men's 200-yard backstroke, Thomas Bourdin tacked on another Lindenwood title with a time of 1:48.69, which won by nearly three seconds.

Savannah College of Art & Design (Ga.) saw Thomas Gibson go down to the wire for the second-straight day against SFU's Sean Nugent, as Gibson swam a 2:04.51 in the Men's 200-yard breaststroke, which beat Nugent's 2:04.56 by only 0.05 seconds.

Two coaches also earned hardware Saturday, as Garry Nelson of the University of the Cumberlands was named Women's Coach of the Year and Craig Penrose from Lindenwood was named Men's Coach of the Year. In other post-championship awards, All-Americans were named out of those finishing in the top three of each event during the championship.

Women's Coach of the Year - Garry Nelson, University of Cumberlands

Men's Coach of the Year - Craig Penrose, Lindenwood University

Women's Swimmer of the Year - Kathryn Rosberg, Simon Fraser

Men's Swimmer of the Year - Jan Tichy, Cal Baptist

Women's Diver of Year - Laura Sherer, SFU

Men's Diver of Year - Ben Whalman, CBU