Milligan Swimming Squads Both Lead at AAC Championships After Day One
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) swim championships began on Thursday inside the Kingsport Aquatic Center. With impressive days on both sides of competition for the Milligan University swim squads, they enter day two with the lead in both the men's and women's championship standings.
The evening session's finals started with the women's 200 yard Medley Relay, where the Milligan quartet of Samantha van Vuure, Teagan Jose, Mary Grace Bitting and Madison Akbari placed third with a time of 1:49.61.
On the men's side, Paxton Smith, Caleb Fry, Joash Mckonie and Stephen Gilbert teamed up to break the AAC meet record and win the race at 1:29.60 in the 200 yard Medley Relay.
In the women's 500 yard Freestyle, Riley Renaud reached the second position in the final, finishing at 5:05.15. The Buffs also had three other finalists in the event, as Peyton Brady (4th), Katelyn Williams (5th) and Rosalee Wenhame (8th) reached the final.
For the men, Gellert Szedlak was the top Milligan finisher in third with a time of 4:39.99. His teammates Peter Gilbert, Morgan Roszel, Jacob Miller, Shelton Harviel and Michael Cellucci made up the remainder of the finishers in the final.
Several Milligan women made it to the final in the 200 yard Individual Medley. Emma Rae Phillips placed fourth, Jose finished fifth, van Vuure came in sixth and Bitting touched in eighth.
For the men, Robert Adam earned a victory in the 200 yard Individual Medley with a time of 1:50.60. S. Gilbert's third-place finish, Nate Halloran's fourth-place showing and Jack Allen's fifth-place result rounded out Milligan's list of finishers in the final.
In the women's 50 yard Freestyle, Akbari earned the win with a 24.32 mark. She had three other teammates reach the final and finish in fourth, fifth and sixth. Liz Mahan, Abigail Pauls and Suzanne Aguirre nabbed those spots.
Milligan had six of the top eight in the men's 50 yard Freestyle, as Smith placed second, Fry came in third, Mckonie touched fourth, Michael Rinaldi came in fifth, RJ Brumit placed seventh and Riley Gregor ended up eighth.
Milligan's women's 800 yard Freestyle Relay came in third place, as the squad included Renaud, Bitting, Mahan and van Vuure who swam a 7:58.66 clip.
The men won their final, as Adam, Szedlak, Andre Bazzana and S. Gilbert teamed up to score a 6:47.72, which was a new meet record at the AAC Championships.
The teams will continue with the morning session on Friday, starting at 9 a.m. at the Kingsport Aquatic Center.