FREMONT, Neb. – The No. 2 Olivet Nazarene University women's swim and dive team traveled to Nebraska for the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) Conference Championships Thursday through Saturday.  Allison Pearson won Female, and Freshman Swimmer of the Meet and Kelly Essler won Coach of the Year as the Tigers won the KCAC Conference Championship for the third straight-year.  

The Tigers made great strides in the first day of action.  The Tigers started the meet with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay.  The team of Helina Reyes, Halle Briner, Addison Daily, and Pearson broke the meet record with a time of 1:36.61.  After Carley Logan finished third in the 500-yard freestyle, Pearson won the 200-yard IM.  Pearson broke the meet record with a time of 2:07.46.  Briner and Julie Vega finished as second and third-place finishers, respectively.  After Reyes and Daily finished second and third in the 50-yard freestyle, the Tiger kept up their dominance in the relays.  In the 400-yard medley relay, the team of Paige Howell, Megan Schroeder, Ashley Parry, and Pearson broke the meet record with a finish of 3:52.94.  The Tigers also saw some good results in diving competition with Teagon Albert winning the 3m diving with a score of 210.55 and finished second in the 1m diving with a score of 206.80.  The Tigers finished day one in first place.   

The Tigers started day two with a record-setting performance in the 200-yard medley relay.  The team of Howell, Schroeder, Parry, and Pearson finished in first with a time of 1:46.69, breaking the meet record.  Pearson then followed that up with another first-place finish but this time in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:34.92.  After Parry placed second in the 100-yard butterfly and Briner finished second in the 200-yard freestyle, Pearson, Schroeder, Vega, and Payton DeZur took the first four places in the 100-yard breaststroke.  Pearson won with a time of 1:03.64.  Howell continued her strong meet thus far and took first in the 100-yard backstroke, breaking the meet record, with a time of 58.87.  The Tigers finished out the day with another record-breaking performance but this time in the 800-yard freestyle relay.  The team of Briner, Logan, Parry, and Pearson finished with a time of 7:49.41.   

Logan kicked off the final day of action for the Tigers with a third-place finish in the 1650-yard Freestyle with a time of 18:22.52. Howell then continued her impressive debut at the KCAC Championships and won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:06.71. In the 100-yard freestyle, Briner won the race with aa time of 52.59 seconds, while Reyes and Parry finished in third and fourth. DeZur then won the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:23.02. Veag finished in second place with a time of 2:23.44. In the next event, Parry won the 200-yard butterfly crossing the finish line in 2:06.22. The Tigers concluded the meet with a first-place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The team of Pearson, Reyes, Parry, and Briner finished with a time of 3:30.67.    

Below are the top four finishers for the Tigers throughout the KCAC championships.   

*New KCAC Championships Record 

WHAT'S NEXT?  

The No. 2 Tigers travel to Columbus, Ga. on Wednesday, March 2nd through Saturday, March 5th for the NAIA National Championships.  Please visit onutigers.com for more information.  

--ONU— 

*Contact: Sam Viebrock, Sports Information Director, stviebrock@olivet.edu