Mustang teams place in top three in Morningside Invitational

SIOUX CITY, IOWA – Morningside continued its season, hosting its annual invitational, welcoming competition from Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas to the confines of the Hindman-Hobbs Center's six-lane pool. While the weather was cold and dreary outside, the times in the pool were hot, with competitors besting the pool's standing records and NAIA standards in several races.

Starting off Friday night's small-scale meet, the women's 800 yard-freestyle relay team placed second with a time of 9:08.91 and the men's 400 yard-medley relay placed in fourth with a time of 3:40.55.

Following the relays, Willy Pinnow swam to a first-place title in the 500 yard-freestyle with a time of 4:57.91, his best time for the season. In the same event, neck-and-neck and separated by a hair, finishing in fifth-  and sixth-place , were the duo of Ron DeFauw (5:09.22) and James Spicer (5:09.61).

For the women's "IMers", a women's trio of Grace Holzerland, Maddy Slaughter, and Natalie Hunt touched in at eighth (2:28.29), ninth (2:31.53), and tenth place (2:33.21) in the 200 yard individual-medley. Placing in the top five for the men's team in the same event, Caden Morton touched the wall with a time of 2:09.36.

In the fastest event of the night, the 50-yard freestyle, Rachel Roose wound up in second place with an NAIA championship B standard time of 25.41. Josie Dike, with a time of 26.33, and Joe Ciriaco, with a time of 22.04, both finished in the top five for the same event.

Wrapping up the evening, the women's 400-yard medley relay finished in third place with a time of 4:28.09, and the men's 800-yard freestyle relay also finished third, at 7:31.57.

Distance swimmers were up bright and early Saturday morning to begin the meet with the 1650-yard, or one mile, freestyle event. For the women's team, Kirstin Verplanke finished in fifth (20:21.16), and for the men's team a trio of James Spicer, Trey Kennedy, and Ron DeFauw took third-through-fifth placings in the event.

In the afternoon, DeFauw had another strong swim in the 400-yard individual medley, finishing in third place with a time of 4:39.06. Other highlights of the afternoon include Roose and Josie Dike racing to the top five in the 100-yard freestyle and second place finishes for both the men and women's teams in the 200-yard freestyle relays.

Later in the meet, mid-distance swimmer Pinnow had another fantastic swim in the 200-yard freestyle, placing first at 1:48.65, with fellow teammate JR Albers placing third with a time of 1:51.90. Megan Keller scored points for the women's team as she finished in the top five for the event with a time of 2:12.40.

As team points begin to finalize James Camp performed exceedingly well in the 100-yard butterfly, swimming in with an NAIA B standard cut of 52.90, good for a second-place finish.

As the long meet came to an end, the Mustangs left it all in the pool for the 400-yard freestyle relays as the women's team took sixth with a time of 4:00.92, and the men's team took third with a time of 3:18:34.

Morningside placed third among the women's teams competing, trailing Midland, last year's Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference runners-up, by fewer than 90 points. The host men claimed second, besting the conference champions from last year by just over 40 points.