2019 NAIA Men’s Nationals: Keiser Maintains Slight Lead After Day 2

2019 NAIA National Championships – Men’s Meet

• Dates: Wednesday, February 27 – Saturday, March 2; prelims 9 am, finals 5 pm
• Location: Columbus Aquatic Center, Columbus, Georgia (Eastern Time Zone)
• Defending Champions: Keiser University (results)
• Psych Sheets: Available here
• Fan Guides: Available here
• Live Results: Available here
• Live Video: Available here
• Championship Central

Day Two

Despite winning both relays and two of the three individual events on Day 2, Keiser holds only a 3.5-point lead over SCAD Savannah after two days of competition at the 2019 NAIA National Championships. The Seahawks, who were expected to win by 95 points, were dealt a blow when top-seeded Lukas Macek was disqualified in the final of the 200 IM. SCAD, meanwhile, outperformed their psych sheet seedings by 24 points in prelims on Thursday while Keiser performed exactly as expected. Lindenwood-Belleville and University of the Cumberlands are down from pre-meet expectations, giving Loyola New Orleans, who has outperformed by 3à points thus far, an opportunity to compete for 3rd place in the team standings.

Men’s 200 Yard Freestyle Relay – Finals

• Meet Record: 1:18.43, 2014, Oklahoma Baptist University (L Lassley, R Robbins, D Ramirez, G Sullivan)

1. Keiser – 1:20.97
2. SCAD Savannah – 1:21.58
3. Loyola New Orleans – 1:23.79
4. College of Idaho – 1:24.53
5. Thomas – 1:24.71
6. LWC – 1:25.01
7. Midland – 1:25.32
8. Union – 1:25.36

Keiser successfully defended its 2018 title in the 200 free relay with 3/4 of last year’s quartet. Newcomer Matias Lazzerini (21.43) joined juniors Marcel Nagy (19.40) and Macek (20.34) as well as senior Andrei Stukov (19.80) to win the event in 1:20.97, just a half-second off last year’s winning time.

Runner-up SCAD took the race out quickly, with a 20.74 leadoff from sophomore Zoltan Monori. Senior Tim Olbrich (20.36) and sophomore Miles Kredich (20.70) had strong legs but Keiser took control over the middle 100 of the race. Freshman Irvin Hoost (19.78) had the fastest anchor in the field but couldn’t catch Keiser’s Stukov. The Bees took second in 1:21.58, more than 1.1 seconds faster than their 4th-place finish from 2018.

Loyola New Orleans, who won the B final last year, finished 3rd in 1:23.79 with swims from junior Warren Massimini (21.02), sophomore Jack Jackson (20.74), and freshmen Chett Bell (20.81) and Streett Martin (21.22).

Men’s 500 Yard Freestyle – Finals

• Meet Record: 4:20.35, 2017, Joel Thatcher, SCAD

1. Pol Roch, Keiser– 4:26.30
2. Niels Engeln, Lindenwood-Belleville – 4:31.33
3. Manuel Laguna Gomez, WV Tech – 4:34.23
4. Xavier Bordes Adell, Olivet Nazarene – 4:34.46
5. Spence Clark, SCAD– 4:34.55
6. John Morgan McDonald, Cumberlands – 4:37.19
7. Nathan Kuszynski, St. Ambrose – 4:38.35
8. Seth Cripe, Olivet Nazarene – 4:38.90

Keiser freshman Pol Roch, seeded 1st by over 3 seconds, ended up winning over defending champion Niels Engeln of Lindenwood by more than 5 seconds. Roch went 4:26.30 to Engeln’s 4:31.33. Engeln won in 4:30.81 last year.

The next wave of finishers made a mad dash for the wall, with West Virginia Tech junior Manuel Laguna Gomez getting the touch in 4:34.23. That’s more than 2.2 seconds faster than his 6th-place finish from 2018. ONU’s Xavier Bordes Adell, who tied for 4th last year, came to the wall .23 after Laguna Gomez and .09 ahead of SCAD freshman Spence Clark.

Men’s 200 Yard Individual Medley – Finals

• Meet Record: 1:47.55, 2011, David Hibberd, Simon Fraser

1. Zoltan Monori, SCAD – 1:50.29
2. Martin du Teilleul, Lindenwood – 1:50.53
3. Gergely Harsanyi, SCAD – 1:51.80
4. Joel Hansson, Keiser – 1:51.90
5. Maik Rieffenstahl, SCAD – 1:52.39
6. Keith Jessee, Asbury – 1:53.53
7. Wiktor Perkowski, Union – 1:54.95
8. Lukas Macek, Keiser – DQ

A potential turning point in the meet came when defending champion and top-seeded Macek of Keiser was DQd in the 200 IM. The Seahawks came into the meet with a 95-point advantage over SCAD in the (modified) psych sheet scoring and the Bees had already outperformed the psych sheet by 24 points in prelims on Thursday. SCAD sophomore Zoltan Monori edged Lindenwood’s Martin du Teilleul for the national title, 1:50.29 to 1:50.53. Monori (23.66-28.76-32.36-25.51) was trailing behind du Teilleul (23.55-28.59-31.88-26.51) until the final 50, when he outsplit him by a full second. Monori passed teammate Gergely Harsanyi en route to his win. Harsanyi had been ahead of du Teilleul after backstroke but trailed him by .23 after the breaststroke. Harsanyi was 5th last year as a freshman, while du Teilleul was 3rd. Joel Hansson of Keiser dropped 1 second from prelims to place 4th, improving 3 spots from prelims and mitigating some of the damage from the DQ.

Men’s 50 Yard Freestyle – Finals

• Meet Record: 19.71, 2014, Logan H Lassley, Oklahoma Baptist

1. Marcel Nagy, Keiser – 19.97
2. Andrei Stukov, Keiser – 20.20
3. Irvin Hoost, SCAD – 20.33
4. Warren Massimini, Loyola New Orleans – 20.90
5. Scott Cain, Midland – 20.92
6. Viktor Lyson, Cumberlands – 20.98
7. Matias Lazzerini, Keiser – 21.05
8. Iran Cavalcante-Almeida, Olivet Nazarene – 21.43

Keiser made up for the 200 IM with a 1-2 finish in the 50 free, as expected. Junior Marcel Nagy edged senior Andrei Stukov, 19.97 to 20.20, for the win. Stukov was runner-up in this event last year, too. SCAD freshman Hoost turned with Stukov at the 25 but came back .12 behind him and wound up 3rd with 20.33.

Loyola junior Warren Massimini, who placed 7th in 2018, led the next wave of finishers. He touched out Midland freshman Scott Cain and Cumberlands sophomore Viktor Lyson with 20.90.

Men’s 400 Yard Medley Relay – Finals

• Meet Record: 3:12.88, 2014, Oklahoma Baptist University (D Ramirez, G Penny, G Sullivan, L Lassley)

1. Keiser – 3:15.94
2. SCAD – 3:19.99
3. Cumberlands – 3:22.96
4. Midland – 3:23.46
5. Union – 3:24.28
6. Lindenwood-Belleville – 3:25.10
7. Asbury – 3:6.48
8. Loyola – 3:26.56

Keiser swapped out 3 swimmers from prelims and moved Jan Suchan to the anchor and thereby took 7 seconds off their prelims time to win with 3:15.94. Nagy led off with a 48.72 backstroke to get the Seahawks off to a significant lead. Hansson followed with a 54.41 breaststroke leg, and Keiser was already up by more than 2.3 seconds. Macek went 47.76 on the fly leg and Suchan brought it home in 45.05. Keiser won in 3:14.95 last year.

SCAD’s Hoost had the fastest anchor (44.99), but the Bees finished 4 seconds behind Keiser in second place. Zachar led off with 49.45. He was followed by Rieffenshahl (55.94) and Kredich (49.61) before Hoost took over.

Cumberlands (Daric Sundeen, Hunter Eaton, Lyson, and Bryce Pierce) and Midland (Collin McKelvey, Tyler Penney, Gabe Martinez, and Cain) both improved by more than 3 seconds from their prelims performances to finish 3rd and 4th, respectively.

Men’s Scores After Day 2

“The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), headquartered in Kansas City, Mo., is a governing body of small athletics programs that are dedicated to character-driven intercollegiate athletics.

In 2000, the NAIA reaffirmed its purpose to enhance the character building aspects of sport. Through Champions of Character, the NAIA seeks to create an environment in which every student-athlete, coach, official and spectator is committed to the true spirit of competition through five core values.”