CARBONDALE, Ill. – The men’s 100-Yard Freestyle record at the University of Evansville has stood since February 1999, when former Olympian Nikola Kalabic set the standard during a Hall of Fame career. On Saturday night, senior Riccardo Di Domenico (Johannesburg, South Africa) broke it while leading off the men’s 400-Yard Freestyle Relay to cap a great weekend for UE at the A3 Performance Invitational in Carbondale, Illinois.
Di Domenico posted a time of 44.77 to lead UE to a 400 Free Relay time of 3:01.49 to place second overall. His time beat Kalabic’s mark of 44.87, set on February 27, 1999. It was the longest-standing swimming record on both the men’s and women’s side at UE.
“What a tremendous effort!” said UE swimming and diving head coach Stuart Wilson. “Not only by Riccardo, but also by our entire team this weekend. The team did an incredible job this entire weekend!
“We had a few school records this week, and a lot of swimmers either posted a personal-best mark, or were right near it this weekend. This speaks well for our championship meet in the spring! We’ll enjoy this weekend’s effort for now, but it is already time to get back to work on getting even better now.”
Di Domenico’s record came in the meet’s final event, and capped a Saturday which saw UE post 13 top five finishes in the ‘A Finals,’ including two individual event victories.
Junior Jackson Caudill (Mt. Sterling, Ky./Montgomery County) began Saturday’s final round with an event victory in the 1,650-Yard Freestyle, winning by over 30 seconds with a time of 15:48.84. Fellow junior Alon Baer (Gesher HaZiv, Israel) also remained undefeated in the Breaststroke events this year, as he won the 200 Breast in a time of 1:59.76.
Both 400 Free Relay teams finished second posting times of 3:01.49 on the men’s side and 3:31.14 on the women’s side. Senior Sonsoles Aguayo (Jerez, Spain) finished second in the women’s 100 Free, posting a time of 52.64 to rank as the 10th-fastest female swimmer in UE history in the event. Fellow senior Maya Cunningham (Yakima, Wash./Eisenhower) also placed second in the women’s 200-Yard Butterfly with a time of 2:03.79.
Senior Sarah Jahns (Lilburn, Ga./Parkview) and junior Iryna Tsesiul (Minsk, Belarus) finished third and fourth in the women’s 200-Yard Backstroke, posting times of 2:00.97 and 2:02.68 respectively. Sophomores Carlos Souto (A Coruna, Spain) and Benjamin Hasanovic (Innsbruck, Austria) also finished third and fourth in the men’s 200 Breaststroke with times of 2:04.37 and 2:04.72, with Hasanovic entering into UE’s career top 10 as the sixth-fastest male swimmer in the event.
Sophomore Patrik Vilbergsson (Kopavogur, Iceland) posted a fourth-place finish in the men’s 200 Back with a time of 1:49.52. Di Domenico also posted a fifth-place finish in the regular men’s 100 Free, while sophomore Mari Müller (Zurich, Switzerland) placed fifth in the women’s 200-Yard Breaststroke with a time of 2:19.10, which ranks her third-fastest all-time at UE.
As teams, UE placed second on both the men’s and women’s sides in the six-team meet. The UE men scored 656 points, while the women posted a score of 529.5.
A majority of the UE swimmers will now be off from competition until January 14, 2023, when UE hosts Missouri State, UIC and Bellarmine at the Deaconess Aquatic Center on “Senior Day.” The divers will return to action next on Thursday, December 8 at IUPUI, while a few Purple Aces will compete in the upcoming Toyota U.S. Open after Thanksgiving.
