ELKHART, Ind. – McKendree University women's swimming and diving recorded two NCAA provisional times, set two new school records, tied another school record and took home one silver medal on the first day of action at the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming & Dicing Championships held at the Elkhart Health and Aquatics Center.
In Wednesday's opening day of the action, the 20th-ranked Bearcats scored a total of 261 points to sit in fourth place out of nine teams. No. 3 ranked Drury leads the way after the opening day with 548.5 points, while No. 2 ranked Indianapolis is in second place with 490 points and eighth-ranked Lindenwood is third with 398.5 points.
The NCAA provisional times were turned in by both McKendree's relay teams on the first day of action, while the silver medal came from freshman
Karley Sonnenberg (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) in the 50-yard freestyle.
In the 50 freestyle, Sonnenberg swam time of 23.19 to take home the silver medal as she was inched out by UIndy's Johanna Buys, who won the gold medal with a time of 22.84. Sonnenberg's time was an NCAA 'B' cut time and tied Milica Sostarec's school record that she recorded in 2017 at the House of Champions meet. With her silver medal, Sonnenberg earned Second-Team All-GLVC honors.
McKendree began the evening finals session by placing fourth overall in the 200-medley relay as the Bearcats recorded an NCAA provisional time and a school record time of 1:42.83. The time of 1:42.83. better the school's old record of 1:43.32 set at the 2019 Purdue Invitational.
The members of the school record setting 200 medley relay team were senior
Abigail Rumpp (Knoxville, Tenn./L&N STEM Academy), junior
Grace Credit (La Grange Highlands, Ill./Lyons Township), freshman
Aurora Abbruscato (Reggio Emilia, Italy/I.I.S. Blaise Pascal) and Sonnenberg.
Along with finishing fourth in the A-Final of the 200 medley relay, the Bearcats' 'B' relay team was fourth in the B-Final with a time of 1:46.20. The members of the 'B' relay team were freshman
Ana Radulovic (Belgrade, Serbia/Sportska Gimnazija), junior
Emily Drabick (Barto, Pa./Florida Southern), sophomore
Vanda Voroshazy (Herceghalom, Hungary/Saint Joseph) and freshman
Sarah Gromley (Las Cruces, N.M./Las Cruces).
The next event was the 200 IM and the top finisher for the Bearcats was graduate student
Molly Smalley (Windhoek, Namibia/Plymouth College) as she was fourth in the B-Final with a time of 2:05.77, while Voroshazy was eighth in the B-Final with a time of 2:06.62 and Gromly was the top finisher in the C-Final with a time of 2:07.75.
Along with Sonnenberg's silver medal in the 50 freestyle, Rumpp and Abbruscato went second and seventh in the C-Final of the event with times of 23.78 and 24.12 respectively.
The fourth event of the evening finals was the 1,000-yard freestyle as senior
Hallie Dixon (Jeffersonville, Ind./Jeffersonville) recorded a seventh-place finish in the event with an NCAA 'B' cut time of 10:21.34.
In the final event of the first day, the Bearcats went fourth and 10th in the 200 freestyle relay. In the event, the Bearcats' 'A' team recorded an NCAA provisional time of 1:32.71 to finish in fourth place. The time of 1:32.71 bettered the old school record time of 1:33.77 by a little over a second that was set at the 2020 NCAA Division II National Championships. The members of the 200 freestyle relay were Sonnenberg, Abbruscato, sophomore
Alexis Kachkin (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) and Rumpp.
McKendree's 'B' relay team finished in 10th place with a time of 1:35.61. The members of the 'B' relay team were Drabick, sophomore
Hope Euler (Bentonville, Ark./Bentonville West), Credit and Gromley.
All first and second-place finishers earn first and second-team All-GLVC honors.
The second day of the four-day championships meet begins with preliminaries of the 100 butterfly, 400 IM and 200 freestyle beginning at 10 a.m. ET on Thursday. The women's 3-meter diving begins at 12:30 p.m. ET, with the finals taking place shortly after the conclusion of the prelims. On Thursday evening, the league will conduct championship finals in 100 butterfly, 400 IM, 200 freestyle and 400 medley relay.
