ST. PETERS, Mo. – The Savannah College of Art and Design men’s swimming team finished in fifth place at the NAIA Swimming & Diving National Championship Saturday (March 6) evening at the St. Peters Rec-Plex.
The Bees finished in fifth place with 421 points as
Alex Graudins won his second individual title and third overall at the meet for SCAD. Fresno Pacific University won the meet with 659.50 while four-time defending champion California Baptist finished in second place with 488.50.
Graudins, who won the 500-yard freestyle and came in second place in the 200 freestyle earlier in the meet, broke his own university record as he won the 1,650 freestyle in a time of 15:42.28.
SCAD swimmers again dominated in the men’s 200 breaststroke as the Bees finished in second (
Mike Lawrence – 2:02.64), third (
Thomas Gibson – 2:02.94), fourth (
Nat Emmett -2:04.76) and fifth place (
Bartos Scharmach – 2:05.51).
Stephen Sullivan came in sixth place in the 200 backstroke with a university-record of 1:52.86.
The men’s 400 freestyle relay team of
Vitali Pushkar-Verbitsky,
Sam Crawford,
Owen Chikazawa and Graudins came in fifth with a time of 3:06.83.