The Valpo men’s and women’s swimming teams combined for six individuals making moves on the program’s all-time charts Thursday, while three of the four relays also cracked Valpo’s all-time top-10 as the Beacons began the three-day A3 Performance Invitational, hosted by Southern Illinois in Carbondale, Ill.

How It Happened

• The event which saw the biggest shift in the program’s record book was the men’s 200 IM on Thursday. Senior Derek Eidson (Ventura, Calif./Ventura) led the Valpo contingent in the event, swimming a 1:56.02 in the event final to finish in 10^th position and vault from 10^th to fourth on the program’s all-time chart.
• A pair of rookies posted big swims in the prelims to move into the top-10 in the event as well. Ethan Welker (Clear Spring, Md./Saint James School) recorded a qualifying time of 1:56.28 en route to an eventual 12^th place finish in the event final, moving him into fifth in program history in the 200 IM. Andrew Berzai (South Bend, Ind./Mishawaka Marian) cracked the top-10 as well with a prelim time of 1:57.77, good for 10^th position on Valpo’s all-time chart.
• On the women’s side, the top placement among the program’s all-time best came from freshman Bridget Pollard (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield South). Pollard touched the wall in 5:11.38 in the 500 free, matching the seventh-best time in program history and good for a ninth-place finish.
• The men’s 50 free saw senior Dominic May (Naperville, Ill./Naperville Central) continue his strong final season with a sixth-place finish, coming home in 20.81. Sophomore Brett Little (Princeton, Iowa/North Scott) posted a prelim time of 21.42 and now ranks eighth in program history in the event.
• In the women’s 200 IM, freshman Haley Hume (Ballwin, Mo./Marquette) recorded a time of 2:14.48 in the morning qualifying, cracking the top-10 in program history in the event.
• The men’s 200 free relay squad of Adam Chwieros (Lake Villa, Ill./Grayslake North), Little, Billy Bennett (Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville) and May touched the wall in fourth place and took third-place points with a time of 1:23.81. The quartet was just three-tenths of a second off their program-record time from last season.
• The corresponding relay on the women’s side posted the seventh-fastest 200 free relay time in program history thanks to strong swims from Kenzie Conn (Celina, Ohio/Celina), Sara Strauss (Spring Lake, Mich./Spring Lake), Trinity Springer (Gurnee, Ill./Warren Township) and Chiara Robinson (Castle Pines, Colo./Rock Canyon) for a combined time of 1:38.45.
• Both of Valpo’s 400 medley relay ‘A’ squads broke into the program’s top-10 charts as well. The men’s foursome of Eidson, Bennett, Welker and May posted a time of 3:26.98, good for fifth all-time at Valpo. The women’s team of Conn, Strauss, Pollard and Robinson moved into ninth in program history with a time of 4:01.95.
• The Valpo men sit in fourth place after day one with 96 points, just two points out of third, while the women sit fifth with 69 points.

Next Up

The second day of the three-day meet gets underway Friday morning with prelim swims starting at 10 a.m.