Tavrovsky placed third in the 200 Back after breaking the program record in the event earlier in the day in the preliminary round. In fact, both Tavrovsky and junior Patrik Vilbergsson (Kopavogur, Iceland) went below the previous record of 1:47.14 in the preliminary round with times of 1:46.00 and 1:46.16 respectively. Tavrovsky came back in Saturday night’s final session and placed third overall with a time of 1:46.25, while Vilbergsson was fifth with a time of 1:47.19. Tavrovsky nearly placed second, but was out-touched by 0.01 seconds at the wall by Miami’s Owen Blazer.
The 200-Yard Backstroke record was not the only record to fall on Saturday, though, as senior distance swimmer Jackson Caudill (Mount Sterling, Ky./Montgomery County) broke a pair of school records while placing fourth overall in the 1,650-Yard Freestyle event. Caudill’s 1,000-Yard split time of 9:22.50 broke the previous school record by over three seconds, while his 1,650-Yard final time of 15:38.79 edged his previous school record, set last year.
Sophomore diver Levi McKinney (Boonville, Ind./Boonville) continued UE’s strong Saturday performance in the three-meter diving finals on Saturday night, as he placed sixth overall in the MAC with a final-round score of 283.75.
Evansville also had a pair of freshmen compete in the B Finals on Saturday night. Freshman Yousef Hassan (Doha, Qatar) placed 14th overall in the 200-Yard Backstroke by placing sixth in the B Final with a time of 1:50.36, which ranks him as the eighth-fastest UE male in the event in school history. Fellow freshman Joao Pereira (Curitiba, Brazil) also placed 16th overall in the MAC in the 200-Yard Breaststroke, posting a finals time of 2:06.24. He posted a time of 2:02.88 in the preliminary round, which ranks him as the fourth-fastest UE male in the event in school history.
UE also placed sixth in the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:02.12. Junior Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain) posted one of the fastest 100-Yard Freestyle times in UE history to open the relay, posting a lead-split time of 45.12, which ranks him third-fastest all-time at UE.
As a team, Evansville finished sixth overall at the 2024 MAC Championships. Miami of Ohio took home the overall team title, holding off Missouri State on the final day of competition. Evansville will now turn its sights to the post-season, as a group of swimmers will go on to compete at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships in Ocala, Florida from Thursday, March 14 through Saturday, March 16. UE divers Levi McKinney and Madison Rollett (Evansville, Ind./Reitz) will also compete at the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships in Louisville, Kentucky from Wednesday, March 13 through Saturday, March 16.
