2021 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Championships
- Wednesday, February 17 – Saturday, February 20, 2021
- Holland Aquatics Center, Holland, Michigan
- Live results
- Full results
Grand Valley State swept women’s and men’s titles in the GLIAC, marking GVSU’s seventh-straight men’s titles and its third-ever women’s title.
It was total domination for the Lakers, who swept Swimmer of the Year, Divers of the Year, and Freshman of the Year awards for both men and women.
Women’s Meet
Junior Samantha Laurich went three-for-four in individual wins, earning Women’s Swimmer of the Year honors. The Grand Valley State Laker won her third consecutive conference title in the 200 breast, keeping her GLIAC Championships career undefeated in that race.
Laurich was 2:16.15, leading a 1-2 with teammate Delaney Wihebrink and winning by 1.7 seconds. Laurich also won 200 IM and 400 IM titles for the first time in her career. She was 2:04.73 to win the 200 IM and 4:23.51 in the 400 IM.
Wihebrink, a sophomore, won the 100 breast in 1:02.74, with Laurich finishing second.
Grand Valley State dominated the longer events through the combination of Laurich and rookie Sarah Puscas. The freshman Puscas went 10:03.81 to win the 1000 free and 2:03.16 to win the 200 fly. Those two wins, combined with a key 1:53.56 leadoff leg of the winning 800 free relay, helped power Puscas to the conference Freshman of the Year award.
Adding to that distance domination, sophomore Neta Shiff won the 500 free (4:54.54) and 1650 free (16:53.39) for GVSU.
And sophomore Gracyn Segard swept the 1-meter (444.10) and 3-meter (488.05) diving titles to earn Diver of the Year honors for GVSU. All three award-winners (and double conference champ Shiff) will return next year for a Lakers team that swept 4 of 5 relays on the women’s side along with 18 of 21 total events.
Other event winners for GLVC:
- Junior Melina de Cort went 55.33 to win the 100 back and 2:00.42 to win the 200 back.
- Sophomore Rebecca Farber won the 50 free in 23.56.
- Junior Emma Bliss took the 200 free in 1:51.83. She was also the runner-up in the 500 free.
Defending champs Northern Michigan held off a surging Wayne State for second in a battle that came down to just 8 points. Wayne State had a bit better scoring on the top-end, winning three conference titles. Senior Jia Yi Koh went 51.48 to win the 100 free, and senior Haley Groteler won the 100 fly in 56.10. The two joined forces on the 400 free relay, which capped the meet with a win by almost two seconds over Northern Michigan.
Northern Michigan had a handful of event runners-up, including sophomore Mandy Baird (second in 3-meter diving) and sophomore Txell Font-Cantanero (second in 100 fly). Their overall depth pulled them past Wayne State, despite Wayne State’s 400 free relay win.
Final Points
- Grand Valley State – 1200
- Northern Michigan – 587
- Wayne State – 579
- Saginaw Valley State – 397
- Davenport – 375
- Ashland – 291
Men’s Meet
Grand Valley State won its seventh consecutive men’s title, though it actually came with only one relay title in five relay events. That’s because GVSU dominated the individual races, in large part thanks to star freshman Eric Hieber.
Named both Swimmer of the Year and Freshman of the Year, Hieber dominated the distance races in the conference. He won the 500 free (4:23.64), 1000 free (9:00.53) and 1650 free (15:16.51), and came within half a second of a four-event sweep with his runner-up 1:37.74 in the 200 free. The rookie set two all-time conference records and three conference meet records, shattering conference marks that had held up since the super-suited 2009 season.
His 1650 broke the meet record of 15:24.04 set last year, but more impressive, set the overall conference record previously held at 15:16.56 back in 2009. His 1000 free broke the meet record (9:10.35 from last year), but also shattered the 2009 conference record of 9:09.32. Wayne State’s Fernando Costa held both former conference records. Hieber also smashed the meet record (4:26.05 by Costa) in the 500 free, but couldn’t quite top the overall conference record of 4:23.12, also held by Costa.
Hieber was solid (1:38.9/4:27.5/9:12.1/15:28.2) out of high school, but clearly stepped it up in his first collegiate season with solid drops across the board in those free events.
Grand Valley State also got dual individual titles from Roger Miret Sala and Oscar Saura-Armengol.
Sala, a sophomore, went 1:47.78 to win the 200 IM and 1:37.29 to win the 200 free head-to-head over Hieber. Meanwhile the senior Saura-Armengol swept the butterfly races with a 46.86 in the 100 fly and a 1:47.33 in the 200 fly. Both races came down to fingernails, with a winning margin of 0.03 seconds in the 100 fly and 0.09 seconds in the 200. The touchouts marked three-straight GLIAC titles in both fly races for Saura-Armengol.
Senior Christopher Kelly won the 3-meter dive title (472.40) and placed third on 1-meter. He was named Diver of the Year after his third-straight conference 3-meter title.
Wayne State took over the sprints and rode that speed advantage to three individual conference titles and wins in four of the five relay events.
Junior Franz Mueller narrowly bested Sala for the 100 back title, 48.15 to 48.24. Then in the 100 free, Mueller led a 1-2 finish with sophomore teammate Luka Cvetko – Mueller was 43.95 and Cvetko 44.10. Cvetko was also the conference 50 free champ in 19.81.
That sprint combo led to wins in the 200 medley relay, 400 medley relay, 200 free relay and 400 free relay for Wayne State.
Northern Michigan sophomore Roberto Camera repeated as conference 100 breast champ (54.31), adding the 200 breast title (1:58.66) to boot. His teammate Erikas Kapocius won the 400 IM in 3:51.69.
Other event winners included St. Cloud State freshman Raf Hendricks, who beat Sala by half a second with a 1:45.23 in the 200 back, and Saginaw Valley State senior Justin Ott, who repeated as 1-meter champ with a score of 460.85.
Final Points
- Grand Valley State – 1072.5
- Wayne State – 728.5
- Northern Michigan – 567.5
- St. Cloud State – 402.5
- Saginaw Valley State – 319
- Davenport – 291
- Ashland – 139