DAY FOUR RESULTS

PLEASANT PRAIRIE, Wis. - Carroll's men's and women's swim teams continued their historic CCIW Championships performance Saturday in the fourth and final day of the annual event with a prelim session that concluded with a record-breaking performance by the Pioneers, securing more qualifiers for the evening finals than the program has ever seen. With an impressive 11 lifetime-best times, four student-athletes achieving A qualifying times, and eight achieving B qualifying times, the strong showing propeled a mix of seasoned veterans and rising stars into the finals.

"This year's team is one of the strongest and most supportive that I've been able to watch in my time at Carroll, and shows a ton of potential for the future. The first-years have all added positivity to the team, and I believe they'll all grow into outstanding leaders," Assistant Coach and Carroll Alum David Gonzales said. "The seniors have done a fantastic job leading their team through this tough meet and they continue showing the rest of the team what a good teammate and swimmer is. I couldn't be more proud of how they performed this weekend; and the sky truly is the limit for these student-athletes."

The Individual qualifiers for Saturday's A Finals included Erin Fixen (1650 Freestyle), Morgan Toupal (200 Backstroke), Josie Peterson (100 Freestyle), Kelly Gordon (200 Butterfly) on the women's side and Eddie McConnaha (100 Freestyle) on the men's side. The women's B Finals qualifiers from the Pioneers included Carigan Tabor (200 Breaststroke), Alexandria Ostopowicz (100 Freestyle), and Kailiee Sitter (200 Butterfly), while the men's B Finals qualifiers consisted of Carroll's Thomas Rynne, Eli Griggs-LeRoux, and Matt Brown (all in the 200 Backstroke), and Gavin Buechel and Dylan Klang (both in the 100 Freestyle).

In the Finals, Peterson had the highest finish for the Pioneers, placing second in the 100 Freestyle with a time of 53.21, which was less than two seconds shy of the winning time. McConnaha finished fifth in that same event on the men's side with a finals time of 46.93, which was just more than one second off the pace of the top time. Gordon added a fifth-place finish in the women's 200 Butterfly

In the relay competition, the women's 400 Freestyle featured three Carroll teams, including the C team, composed entirely of seniors Chopper Ceshker, Anna Clare Miller, Kaiya Kolberg, and Sitter, whom swam an exhibition race to mark the end of their college swimming careers. Carroll's A team of Fixen, Ostopowicz, Toupal, and Peterson finished fifth in that event with a time of 3:44.98.

Another highlight of the meet came with the announcement of Carroll's RESPECT recipients, which is awarded as part of the annual specialty awards by the CCIW, selecting one swimmer from each school and each gender to represent their institution as the CCIW RESPECT Award recipient. This year's representative for the Pioneers' swim teams is Matthew Hansen and Madison Kramer. Hansen is a Freshman from St. Charles, Ill., while Kramer is a Freshman from Mequon, Wis.

At the conclusion of the meet, Carroll's men's team found themselves in fourth place, improving one spot from last year's finish, and scoring 237.5 team points, which edged fifth-place Illinois Wesleyan by 16.5 points. The Pio women also showed improvement, scoring 325 team points, which is more than last year's CCIW Championships, while also closing the gap on fourth-place Illinois Wesleyan. Both Carroll teams saw increased success this season, with more overall finalists and double the number of first-year finalists than the past two seasons.