GLVC Championship Central

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. - The Truman State University men's and women's swimming teams wrapped up their four-day stay at the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships on Saturday night inside the Crawfordsville High School Aquatics Center. The women finished in third with 655 points and the men placed fifth with 364 points.

Natalie Galluzzo (pictured below) was named Freshman of the Year while Loriel Hutchinson and Riley Olson were tabbed as the James R. Spalding Sportsmanship Award nominees. The student-athletes chosen for that honor are individuals who have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. These individuals must also be in good academic standing and have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting. The honorees are now eligible to become one of their school's two Spalding Sportsmanship Award winners, which will be announced at the end of the academic year.
 
All in all, Galluzzo accumulated 62 individual points with a win in the 200 breast, second in the 100 breast, third in the 200 IM, and ninth in the 100 fly along with two individual as well as two relay team records.

"The 'Dogs swam very well this weekend!" said interim head coach, Jerod Simek. "We did a very nice job of stepping up when we needed to and controlling what we could control to allow us to perform at our best. I am beyond proud of how we were able to swim with great energy and support for each other. The school records and multiple personal bests would not have been possible without the hard work this team has put in this year and the support of their teammates, our parents and our alumni!"

There were nine school records broken to be exact including four for the women and five on the men's side.

Getting into Saturday's results starting with the 1650 free, the women scored with five including Megan Mensinger in third (17:15.94), Shannon Dague in sixth (17:23.30), Kortney Betz in ninth (17:36.94), Mikayla Kempf in 10th (17:37.35), and Jasmine Roghair in 12th (17:43.06). For the men, Joel Schawe went a personal best in 13th (16:07.98) and JT Thayer was three spots back in 16th (16:18.97).

Moving on to the 100 free, both the men and women had two swimmers apiece including Jamie Fitzpatrick (sixth/51.36) and Nikki Sisson (ninth/51.67) on the women's side along with Sam Heveroh (seventh/45.25) and Lliot Gieseke (ninth/45.50) for the men.

The women were led by Lauren Massot with a personal best in the 200 back (fifth/2:03.99) and she was joined by Emma Barnett in 10th (2:05.20) as well as Kempf in 12th (2:07.11). In that same event, Brenden Harris placed 13th in the B final with a time of 1:52.53.

The 200 breast went quite well for the women as all three swimmers set new personal bests and Galluzzo set one of her two individual school records. She won the event with a time of 2:14.79 while Ginny Schranck was fifth (2:21.03) and Annika Hofer was 10th (2:25.20). On the men's side in that event, Andrew Smith finished his career by placing 14th in the B final with a personal-best time of 2:07.43.

Last, but certainly not least, was the 400 free relay and both the men and women swam well. The men's quartet of Gieseke, Austin Baker, Thayer, and Heveroh set a new school record with a mark of 3:01.22 in fifth place. For the women, their foursome was N. Sisson, Libby Opfer, Barnett, and Fitzpatrick with a time of 3:27.53 in third.

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