The Lindenwood men's and women's swimming and diving teams had strong showings on the opening night of the Delta State Christmas Invite in Cleveland, Miss. 

The women won the opening event of the night in the 800 Freestyle Relay.  The team of Fischer, Sutton, Kunka, and de Rijcke finished in 7:22.57, ranking them number #2 in Division II behind only Queens University of Charlotte. 

In the men's 1000 freestyle, Jan Hanzal and Angel Regalado finished 1stand 2nd defeating the defending national champion Tim Samuelsen from Missouri S&T in the process.  Their times of 9:16.10 and 9:18.56 were both under the NCAA B standard and will potentially earn invitations to the 2018 NCAA Championships and rank 1st and 4th nationally.

The women's medley relays finished 2nd and 3rd behind Delta State.

In the women's 1000, Simone de Rijcke, Jana Hellenschmidt, and Morgan Fischer posted the top 3 times of 10:08.86, 10:12.34, and 10:16.32, all coming in under the NCAA B standard.  De Rijcke and Hellenschmidt will likely receive invitations to NCAA Championships based on their times and rank 4th and 7th nationally.

In men's 3 meter diving, Dylan Callahgan finished in 2nd place overall with a career high score of 489.10, raising his previous qualification score for NCAA Championships.

In the final event of the night, the men finished with 2nd and 4th place finishes in the 800 freestyle relay.

At the end of night one of four, the Lion women are in first place and the men are 2nd behind Delta State University.  

The prelims begin at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday and the session will include the 500 freestyle, 200 Individual Medley and 50 freestyle events. 

The Lions will be back in action tomorrow at 10:00 a.m.