The Master's University's aquatic program saw history made time and time again during the 2019-20 season.
Near the beginning, the group of men from TMU made history by becoming the first male Mustangs to qualify for nationals in relay competition. A few months later, freshman
Courtney Simpson became the first diver from TMU to qualify for not just one, but two national events. Then, freshman
Xavier Gutierrez became the first man from TMU to nationally qualify for an individual event.
Now, the Mustangs can turn the page in this historic chapter of the program after putting on stellar performances during the final day of an NAIA championships that saw Simpson become TMU's first All-American not just once, but twice.
The Palos Verdes native made history the minute she signed with TMU in the summer of 2019, becoming the first diver for the Mustangs in the history of the young program.
When she signed on, head coach
Byron Davis said he was sure that Simpson would "bring the fire and passion this season to our team."
"She is going to be able to come in and be an impact player right out of the gate," he said at the time.
Fast forward to the beginning of 2020, and Simpson punched her ticket into history yet again, qualifying for nationals in both the 3-meter and 1-meter diving events in back-to-back swim meets.
She then went on to become not only the first TMU diver in history to compete nationally, but a two-time All-American, scoring a 172.75 in the 1-meter event on Thursday and a 192.80 in the 3-meter event on Friday.
"She was amazing," teammate
Lezly Plahn said after Simpson completed the 1-meter. "She's such a stellar athlete. I've never really seen diving before so it was cool to watch her and be able to cheer her on."Â
Plahn would go on to make history of her own in Knoxville, becoming only the second woman in program history to qualify for three individual events at nationals: the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter backstroke.
After a consolation final win for the 50 freestyle Thursday, Plahn hit a season-best time of 1 minute, 01.06 seconds in the preliminary round of the 100 backstroke Friday, followed up by a strong 53.46-second performance in the 100-meter freestyle.
Additionally, Plahn was one of several women from the Mustangs to qualify for relay events at the NAIA championships. In all, the ladies of TMU made appearances in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays, and the 200 and 400 medley relays.
On Saturday, Plahn,
Madison Eaton,
Faith Cancik, and
Simone Williams closed out the women's swim season with a strong 3:50.67 performance in the 400 free. For reference, the team had qualified for nationals with a time of 3:55.79 seconds.
TMU's men made history with their relays just by getting in the water, as it marked the first appearance of TMU's men's swimming program at the NAIA championships. Gutierrez, Mazen Hussein,
Raymie Matiashowski and
Brandon Watson qualified for the same events that their female counterparts had.
The four swam season-best splits in the 400 medley relay and finished 25th in the 200 free on Thursday, a season-best 1:46:48 in the 200-meter medley relay Friday, and an impressive 3:23.97 in the 400 freestyle Saturday.
On top of those strong relay performances, Gutierrez competed in two individual events in Knoxville, TMU's first man to do so.Â
After hitting a season-best 52.34 in the 100 butterfly Friday, Gutierrez swam a collegiate-best 48.25 in the 100 freestyle Saturday.
Davis had said going into nationals that he would consider the experience a "win" if the athletes hit best times, and if they were able to walk away with "an increase in their own personal expectations on how they need to perform going forward."
Considering that most of the Mustangs left with season-best performances, and Simpson walked away with the program's first two All-American honors, the second season of The Master's University's aquatic program was indeed a win.
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