ST. PETERS, Mo. – Savannah College of Art and Design swimmer
Alex Graudins won a national title on the first full day of action at the NAIA Men's Swimming & Diving National Championships Thursday (March 4) at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
Through seven events, the Bees stand in fifth place with 110 points. Fresno Pacific University leads with 257.50 points while event host Lindenwood University is in second place with 194. Defending champion California Baptist University is in third with 183 and Concordia (Calif.) University is fourth at 111.
Graudins claimed the Bees first national title as he won the men’s 500-yard freestyle in a university-time of 4:27.44. The freshman from Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, lowered his own record by nearly six seconds in the win. Teammate
Chris Wilson finished in eighth place in the event with a time of 4:39.67.
The 200 medley relay team of
Stephen Sullivan,
Thomas Gibson,
Vitali Pushkar-Verbitsky and
Sam Crawford placed fourth in their event with a time of 1:32.70. The Bees also finished in sixth place as
Mike Lawrence, Sullivan, Wilson and Graudins completed the 800 freestyle relay in a time of 6:55.37.
The NAIA championships continue Friday (March 5) with preliminaries at 10 a.m. Central and the finals beginning at 6 p.m. Events to be competed include the 200 freestyle relay, 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 400 medley relay.