The Ouachita swimming and diving teams took to the pool this past weekend at the UALR Christmas Invitational as the TigerSharks placed second, and the Lady TigerSharks took third, but the biggest news came in the 200 medley relay as the men’s team of Nelson Silva, Radu Badalac, Hal Eubanks and Max Heinze set an NCAA Division II national record.
The team touched the wall in 1:28.52, breaking the mark by 1.3 seconds. The four not only broke the mark, but had to do it twice at the Donaghey Student Center Aquatic Center.
Eubanks said the team was very relaxed heading into the meet, “We knew if we did not get it [the record] we would be able to at nationals,“ he said.
“After the preliminaries, there was a time trial for the 200 medley relay,” Ouachita Head Coach Ryan Killackey said. “They broke the record, but because a record can’t be broken during a time trial, the
team was put to the test by trying to achieve the same feat in the meet.”
“When we found out it did not count it kind of made us mad, but we did not feel any pressure in the next race,“ Eubanks said.
Passing the record actually came as a bit of a surprise for the team. Eubanks said they were expecting to break the 200 freestyle relay, but missed it by .34 seconds. That team consists of Eubanks, Badalac, Heinze and Daniel Karkoska. Eubanks said they expect to be able to break that national record this year along with the 400 medley relay.
Missouri State won the women’s meet with 997 points. Henderson State followed with 635.5, with Ouachita in third with 446.5 points. Incarnate Word (441.5), UALR (280.5) and Hendrix (239) wrapped up the scoring.
Henderson State took the men’s meet with 856.2 points, while Ouachita had 796 points. Incarnate Word finished with 469 points and Hendrix wrapped up the field with 396 points.
Between the two teams, Ouachita qualified 15 for the 2008 NCAA Division II National Championships, which will be March 11-14 in Houston, Texas.
“Going into the meet, we felt like this was going to be a good test to see where we are,” Killackey said. “We wanted to have good, solid swims. We had a lot of good swims and quite few team records broken. We’ve been able to show the training is coming out in our races. We have been swimming smart and racing effectively.”
“I was really impressed on how this team came together. We swam and competed as a team. We want to start each meet with guns a blazing. We had many, many good swims.”
Trina May broke a school record in the 50-free and also qualified in an “A” cut in the 100-free. Katie Patterson made the “B” cut in the 200 back, and the 400 IM. Jenny Christensen qualified for the “B” cut in the 200 breast, while also missing out on a team record.
On the men’s side, Heinze also qualified in the 100 free with an “A” cut, while Eubanks made the “B” cut in the same event. Daniel Karkoska qualified for the “B” cut in three events — the 100 fly, 100 back and 200 IM. Raza Goga made the “B” cut in the 200 breast. Austin Teague came within a second of breaking a team record in the 400 free, as he finished with an “A” cut.
Every relay except the women 200 free made national cuts.
Perhaps one of the biggest surprises of the weekend came from a freshman — Will Wood.
With Vincente Condorelli sidelined with an injury, Wood made a national “B” cut in the distance freestyle and also qualified for nationals later in the evening in the 800 free.
Both teams take the Christmas break off and return to action Jan. 16 in Cleveland, Miss., against Delta State.
