By BRANDON SMITH
Barton Sports Info
For the second straight year hardware will be returning to Great Bend as the Barton Community College swimming programs had a solid four-day performance at the NJCAA National Swimming & Diving Championships held at the Anne Wilder Aquatic Complex in Fort Pierce, FL.
Sitting in third place following opening day action, the Lady Cougars remained steady over the final three days, in securing the program's second straight third place finish and program's third-straight top-4 finish with a 560-point accumulation over the 25 events.
Capturing the team title was Indian River as the Pioneers captured their 42nd constitutive national championship with a four-day total 1,374. Finishing runner-up was Southwestern Oregon with 674 while Jamestown came in fourth place 138 points back of Barton.
Highlighting the women performances was long distance specialist Aleksandra Cicha. Making her first appearance on the big stage, the freshman recorded the Cougars top individual finishes with a trio of fourth placings. Cicha's biggest impact came on the opening day swimming to the program's second fastest time (11:14.23) in the 1000-yard freestyle.
Cicha also aided to one of the team's highest relay finishes, taking the second leg following Silvana Jacquez Viveros opening shift while giving way to Caroline Tipton and Elena Lara as the four-pack combined for the program's fifth fastest 800-yard freestyle relay stoppage (8:25.99) in earning the first of three team third place finishes.
Lara led team high point honors with 54, as the freshman assisted within Barton's other pair of third place relay finishes while picking up two sixth's and a fifth place individually. The final 50-point producer was Jacquez 51, as the sophomore's highest individual finish came in the 200-yard backstroke (2:14.00).
Joining Lara and Jacquez Viveros on both third place 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays was Claire Holt and Caroline Tipton.
On the men's side, Barton stayed within arm's reach of hardware but was unable to overcome the point differential down the stretch in placing fourth for the second straight year and inside the top-4 for the fifth straight season earning 467 points.
Indian River State claimed the program's 50th straight national title behind 1,330 points with Southwest Oregon finishing runner-up at 806 and Iowa Central Community College rounding out in third with 590 points.
Barton's lone national title came in Thursday's final event of the 200-yard medley relay with Javan Titus, Ethan Baylin, Dominik Strba and Louis Ainley topping the seven team field in 3:20.78 falling 0.19-seconds off the program's top time. The four-pack nearly doubled up with a second national title in Friday's 200-medley relay finishing runner-up with the second quickest time in program history (1:30.93).