ELKHART, Ind. – On the final day of the 2022 Great Lakes Valley Conference Swimming & Diving Championships, McKendree University capped the event by adding four more medals to its haul here Saturday at the Elkhart Health and Aquatics Center.
 
In four days of the 2022 championship meet, the fourth-ranked Bearcats took home a total of 13 overall medals, including seven gold medals, three silvers and three bronze medals.
 
Despite its performance on Saturday, McKendree finished the event in third place out of 10 teams as the Bearcats earned a total of 1,365.50 points after being in second place the previous three days. The University of Indianapolis recorded a total of 1,643 points to win its fourth GLVC title as they topped runner-up Drury by 182 points as the No. 3 ranked Panthers scored 1,461 points. No. 20 Missouri S&T (1,252 points) and No. 6 Lindenwood (1,129 points) finished fourth and fifth respectively.
 
In Saturday's fourth and final day of action, the Bearcats and the other nine men's teams competed in five event finals in those five finals, McKendree won one of those events, finished as the runner-up in second and was third in another. Along with taking home three medals on Saturday, the Bearcats also set a new school and conference meet record in the 400-freestyle relay and recorded two NCAA Provisional time in the 400 freestyle relay, two NCAA automatic times in the 100 freestyle and 16 NCAA 'B'-cut times in the preliminaries and finals.
 
McKendree's lone gold medal on Saturday came in the final event of the championships, the 400-freestyle relay. In that event, McKendree topped its own conference mark with an NCAA provisional time of 2:53.59 and that time was a new school record that bettered the old mark of 2:54.11 set at the 2020 GLVC Championships. The members of the gold medal winning 400 freestyle relay were senior Gregg Lichinsky (West Des Moines, Iowa/West Des Moines Valley), freshman Emilio Perez (Milwaukee, Wis./Greenfield), senior Taras Zherebetskyy (Alghero, Italy/ITS "Angelo Roth") and graduate student Xander Skinner (Namibia, Africa/Windhoek Afrikaans Private School).
 
The relay win was the fourth of the championships for the Bearcats as they were the GLVC champion in 2022 in the 200-medley relay, 400 medley relay, 400 freestyle relay and 800 freestyle relay.
 
Along with McKendree's 'A' 400 freestyle relay team earning an NCAA Provisional time, the 'B' team recorded a time of 25.33 to finish in 11th place. The members of the 'B' relay team were freshman Arthur Souza (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Colegio Saber), freshman Alireza Yavari (Isfahan, Iran/Shayestegan), freshman Leo Gandaria-Hernandez (Milwaukee, Wis./Greenfield) and junior Caleb Law (Anchorage, Alaska/Robert Service).
 
The Bearcats opened Saturday's action with Lichinsky and Skinner going second and third in the 100 freestyle with NCAA automatic qualifying times to claim the silver and bronze medals. Lichinsky posted a time of 43.16, while Skinner swam a time of 43.21. Drury's Karol Ostrowski won the gold medal in the 100 freestyle with a time of 42.62, which was .05 seconds shy the GLVC all-time mark of 42.57 set by Lichinsky at last year's GLVC Championships.
 
The Bearcats also earned four 'B'-cut times in the event as Perez and Zherebetskyy were ninth and 10th in the B-Final with times of 44.09 and 44.55 respectively. Law and Souza were 19th and 20th in the C-Final with 'B'-cut times of 44.77 and 45.09 respectively.
 
McKendree's third and final medal on Saturday came in the 200 breaststroke as sophomore Filipe Pinheiro (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Colegio Ao Cubo) took home a bronze medal in the event with an NCAA 'B'-cut time of 1:56.69.
 
In the 200 backstroke, freshman Patryk Rozenek (Radlin, Poland/Zsoms Raciborz) and junior DaVante Carey (Nassau, Bahamas/Queens College) went sixth and 17th overall as they recorded NCAA 'B-cut times of 1:46.04 and 1:48.26.
 
Senior Charlie Fraser-Allen (London, England/Highgate Wood Secondary) was 10th in the 1,650 freestyle, while Filip Cigic (Zagreb, Croatia/Sportska Gimnazija) was 22nd with a time of 16:25.35.
   
All first and second-place finishers earn first and second-team All-GLVC honors.
 
Here are McKendree's first and second-team All-GLVC honorees following the four days of the GLVC Championships.
 
First Team
DaVante Carey – 200 Medley Relay, 400 Medley Relay
Filip Cigic – 800 Freestyle Relay
Caleb Law – 200 Medley Relay
Gregg Lichinsky – 200 Medley Relay, 50 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly, 400 Medley Relay, 400 Freestyle Relay
Jackson Lustig – 200 Butterfly
Emilio Perez – 400 Freestyle Relay
Filipe Pinheiro – 200 Medley Relay, 400 Medley Relay
Xander Skinner – 200 Freestyle, 400 Medley Relay, 800 Freestyle Relay, 400 Freestyle
Arthur Souza – 800 Freestyle Relay
Alireza Yavari – 800 Freestyle Relay
Taras Zherebetskyy – 400 Freestyle Relay
 
Second Team
Caleb Law – 200 Freestyle Relay
Gregg Lichinsky – 200 Freestyle Relay, 100 Freestyle
Emilio Perez – 200 Freestyle Relay
Xander Skinner – 200 Freestyle Relay
 
On Saturday morning, the league held prelims in the 100 freestyle, 200 backstroke and 200 breaststroke and in those prelims, the Bearcats recorded seven NCAA-B times and an automatic time in the 100 freestyle by Lichinsky, who was first with an NCAA automatic time of 43.22.
 
At the conclusion of the meet, the GLVC announced the award winners as UIndy freshman Cedric Buessing was named the GLVC Swimmer of the Year and GLVC Freshman of the Year as voted on by the league's coaches. Missouri S&T's Doug Grooms and UIndy's Brent Noble were named GLVC co-Coaches of the Year. UIndy's newcomer Julio Osuna earned GLVC Diver of the Year honor, which is awards to the diver(s) who earns the most total team points.
 
The league also named UIndy as the recipient of the GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Team Award in women's swimming and diving, while 10 student-athletes were named GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award honorees for the sport, including senior Ethan Hanson (Anchorage, Alaska/PAIDAIE Cooperative School) being selected from McKendree.
 
GLVC James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Individual Award honorees:
Andrew Rodriguez, Drury
Likith Prema, UIndy
Mariano Sosa, Lewis
Pedro da Silva, Lindenwood
Joe Park, Maryville
Ethan Hanson, McKendree
Nolan Fergus, Missouri S&T
Ryan Conner, UMSL
Jackson Michals, Truman State