Milligan Swimming captures eight of 10 AAC titles on day one of AAC Championships

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (February 10, 2022) – Milligan University's nationally-ranked swim teams captured eight Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) championships on the first night of the AAC Championships in the Kingsport Aquatic Center.

The Buffs won two men's relays, two women's relays, two individual men's titles and two individual women's titles. In the 10 championship finals on the evening, Milligan claimed gold in eight events.

Milligan opened the championship finals with gold medal finishes and NAIA "A" cuts in the 200 yard medley relay. Tyler Cates, Kaylee Williams, Gabby MacPherson and Maggie Blazo officially took first in women's 200 medley relay in 1:49.23. However, the fastest time of the night in the event belonged to the Buffs' "B" relay of Rachel Scheffer, Bre Coley, Suzy Aguirre and Liz Mahan, who finished in 1:49.15.

"We had a lot of amazing swims this evening, but the highlight of the meet wasn't any of the races," said head coach Spencer Scarth. "Our women's B relay beat our A, which was a surprise to almost everyone, and our conference only scores A relays. After the awards ceremony, our women on the A relay gave their medals to their teammates on the B relay, even though they did not score. Really special moment and proud of the women on both relays for recognizing each other's accomplishments."

Wiktor Perkowski, Aubin Dulin, Andre Bazzana and Stephen Gilbert claimed the men's 200 medley title in 1:33.88.

MacPherson took the AAC title in the 500 freestyle in 5:06.76 and Emma Rae Phillips was the runner-up in 5:14.69. Both women's 500 freestyle marks met the NAIA national qualifying standard.

In the men's 500 freestyle, Bazzana took the AAC title with a Milligan and AAC Championship record time of 4:38.56. Ben Hawkins finished third in 4:46.89, an NAIA provisional time.

The Buffs swept one-through-three in the women's 200 yard IM. Coley won the event with an NAIA provisional mark of 2:16.74. Williams was second in 2:19.50 and Grace Feeney was third in 2:20.65.

Gilbert repeated as the AAC's 200 IM champion in 1:49.90, an NAIA "A" standard. Dulin placed third in the 200 IM with a provisional swim of 1:56.30.

Blazo was second in the 50 free (24.63) and Mahan was third (24.75) as both swimmers posted national qualifying times.

In the men's 50 free, Perkowski (21.25) and Cole Brusher (21.32) recorded provisional times in a second and third place showing.

Milligan capped the night with AAC Championship records and NAIA "A" cuts in the 800 freestyle relay. The women's grouping of MacPherson, Cates, Mahan and Blazo swam 7:44.31 to dust the competition by nearly a minute and set Milligan's all-time record in the event.

Gilbert, McCosh, Perkowski and Bazzana took the 800 free relay title in 6:53.11 to cap day one with Milligan's eighth AAC title.

Milligan continues with day two prelims at the AAC Championships tomorrow morning at 9:00 a.m.