The Lindenwood men's and women's swimming and diving teams took to the pool on Wednesday to start the GLVC Swimming & Diving Conference Championships in Elkhart, Indiana.  In one of the deepest fields in the nation, the GLVC Championships is always one of the fastest meets in the country and a precursor for the NCAA Championships in March. 

Following four days of competition and several terrific performances and numerous NCAA provisional marks, the Lindenwood women's team tallied 1,616 points and finished in third place behind champions Drury and runner-up Indianapolis.  On the men's side, the Lions tallied 1,129 points and finished fifth.  Katie Werkema was named the GLVC Women's Co-Diver of the Year, while Pedro de Silva and Lyssa Wood earned the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award.

The Lions will now wait and see if their times will enable them to be invited to the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, NC on March 9-12.

Here are highlights from each day of the competition. 

Day 4 Highlights

Men's Top Performances

• In one of the fastest races of the meet that saw three different swimmers meeting the NCAA "A" standard, Lindenwood's Zach Linder finished 8^th with a "B" time of 44.32.
• In the final individual race of the evening, Jerry Brown's time of 1:59.95 was good enough for 7^th place
• The men's 400 free relay team of Radostin Krastev, Linder, Patryk Winiatowski and Evan Root had NCAA provisional time of 2:57.75 as they finished 4^th

 
Women's Top Performances

• After winning the 3 meter diving competition on Day 2, Katie Werekma tallied 443.15 points in the 1 meter competition and earned the silver medal at the GLVC Championships finishing in 2^nd place
• Jana Hellenschmidt finished in 5^th place in the 1650 free in a time of 17:12.61
• McKayla Siemiller and Joselle Mensah advanced to the evening swim of the 100 free with Siemiller finishing 4^th in 50.91 and Mensah coming in 7^th (51.15)
• Stephanie Marks won another bronze medal, this time finishing 3^rd in the 200 breast with a time of 1:59.60, which was only .39 seconds ahead of teammate Shelby Kasse (1:59.99)
• In the 200 breast, Beata Maruszczyk tapped the wall at 2:17.14 and won her own bronze medal finishing in 3^rd place, while Lexie Winnett finished in 7^th (2:22.07)

 Day 3 Highlights

Men's Top Performances

• Freshman David Molina-Fregenal topped the old GLVC scoring record in the men's 3 meter diving, but was not enough as he finished second with a score of 569.90, over 50 points ahead of the third place diver
• Melker Olsson posted a B qualifying time of 4:29.31 in the 500 free, which was good enough to finish 5^th, while Vincent Jaworski and Matheo Mateos-Mongelos finished in 7^th and 8^th
• Jerry Brown swam the 100 breast in 54.24, good enough for 6^th on the day
• Sebastian Silva finished in 7^th in the 200 fly with a time of 1:48.63
• The men's 800 free relay team of Radostin Krastev, Patryk Winiatowski, Jaworski and Mateos-Mongelos won bronze with a time of 6:34.61. 

 Women's Top Performances

• Jana Hellenschmidt knocked five seconds off her time from the preliminary round in the 500 free and finished 5^th overall in a time of 4:56.35
• Stephanie Marks continued her excellent swimming at the championships by winning the bronze and finishing third in the 100 back.  Her time of 54.73 is a B qualifying time and was a little under a second faster than teammate Shelby Kasse who finished 4^th
• Three Lions advanced to the finals in the 100 breast, with Beata Maruszczyk finishing in 4^th place, while Lexie Winnett and Joselle Mensah finished 5^th and 8^th respectively
• Camilla Rimmereide was the top performer for the Lions in the 200 fly, with a time of 2:05.35
• The Lindewood 800 free relay team of Isabella Gable, Meredith Riegler, Hellenschmidt and Maruszczyk won the silver medal in a provisional time of 7:25.62

 
Day 2 Highlights

Men's Top Performances

• Matheo Mateos-Mongelos won the B final of the 400 meter IM shaving almost 12 seconds off his time in the preliminaries and finished in 3:51.67 which was the second fastest time of the day by all competitors and is a NCAA B qualifying time.
• Junior Sebastian Silva swam the 400 IM in a time of 3:58.77, his closing lap in 26.92 seconds allowed him to out-touch Mercer from S&T by .05 seconds to finish 6^th

Women's Top Performances

• 2021 First Team All-American Katie Werkema continued her excellent diving as she won the 3 meter diving competition.  The senior finished almost 30 points ahead of the second place diver.
• Lexie Winnett finished in 5^th place in the 100 fly with a B qualifying time of 55.63
• Four Lindenwood swimmers finished in the top eight in the 200 free.  Beata Maruszczyk had the fastest time of the four and finished in 4^th place in 1:51.29.  Joselle Mensah, Meredith Rieg and Camilla Rimmereide finished 6^th, 7^th and 8^th respectively all in times that were under the B qualifying standard.
• The women's 400 Medley Relay team of Stephanie Marks, Maruszczyk, Winnett and McKayla Siemiller finished on the podium for the Lions with a time 3:44.77 which was good for 3^rd place.

 
Day 1 Highlights

Men's Top Performances

• Matheo Mateos was in second place headed into the last 50 meters and had the fastest final leg of all swimmers to win the 200 IM in a time of 1:47.44.
• 200 Medley Relay finished 6^th in a time of 1:28.61 which provisionally qualified time for NCAA
• Vincent Jawaworski and Melker Olsson finished 5^th and 6^th in the men's 1000 meters, with times of 9:18.92 and 9:23.20 respectively, both of which are NCAA B qualifying marks
• Freshman David Molina finished 5^th in the 1 meter diving competition

Women's Top Performances

• McKayla Siemiller finished 3^rd in the 50 free with a time of 23.18, which is the second fastest time in school history and met the NCAA B qualifying standards
• Women's 200 Medley relay of Stephanie Marks, Joselle Mensah, Lexie Winnett and Siemiller finished third in a time of 1:41.39 and set a new school record and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships
• In the women's 1000 meter free, Jana Hellenschmidt finished in 6^th place with NCAA B qualifying time of 10:20.24