On the women’s side, UE competed in two events on Friday, as sophomore Iryna Tsesiul (Minsk, Belarus) clocked in with a time of 56.65 in the women’s 100-yard Backstroke, a day after placing 16th overall in the 50-yard Backstroke. Tsesiul also teamed with senior Jessie Steele (Houston, Texas/Klein), junior Sage Moore (Lexington, Ohio/Lexington) and freshman Sveva Brugnoli (Rome, Italy) to post a time of 1:46.78 in the women’s 200-yard Medley Relay.
On the men’s side, Evansville’s 200-yard Medley Relay team and 800-yard Freestyle Relay team both finished in the top 20 at the NIC meet to place in the scoring. Sophomore Alon Baer (Gesher Haziv, Israel) also advanced to the consolation finals in the 100-yard Breaststroke and placed 17th overall in a field of 48 competitors with a finals time of 54.94. The UE men find themselves in 15th place overall, just 25 points back of Virginia Tech and nine points ahead of UNLV in the team standings.
“Overall, I was really pleased with how all of the swimmers competed today,” said UE head swimming coach Stuart Wilson. “Once again, our relay teams really swam their hearts out and showed really well against some very good competition.
“One more day of competition and then we can finally rest. Hopefully, we can finish on a high note tomorrow!”
The men’s 200 Medley Relay team of Baer, junior Riccardo Di Domenico (Johannesburg, South Africa) and freshmen Patrik Vilbergsson (Kopavogur, Iceland) and Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain) clocked in with a time of 1:30.12 to place 12th overall.  Vilbergsson then teamed up with senior Zeke Metz (Topeka, Kan./Seaman), sophomore Grant Kay (Ellicott City, Md./Hebron), and freshman Carlos Souto Vilas (A Coruna, Spain) in the 800 Free Relay to place 16th overall with a time of 6:48.78.
Individually, Vilbergsson also placed 25th in the preliminary rounds of the 100-yard Backstroke, with a time of 50.21, which ranks him as the sixth-fastest swimmer in UE history in the event. Santos Lopez also placed 23rd individually in the prelims of the 100-yard Butterfly with a time of 48.99.
The CSCAA National Invitational Championships are college swimming’s equivalent to the NIT in basketball, and currently features athletes from over 56 schools, including many “Power Five” schools. The meet will conclude on Saturday, with preliminary swims beginning at 8:30 a.m. central time in the 100-yard IM, the 200-yard Backstroke, the 100-yard Freestyle, the 200-yard Breaststroke and Butterfly, and the 1,650-yard Freestyle. The finals for all of those individual events, as well as the 400-yard Freestyle Relay will take place Saturday night at 5:00 p.m.
