ELKHART, Ind. -- Freshman
Katherine Dyer set a new NAIA Championship record on her way to winning the 200 Individual Medley on day two of the NAIA National Swim & Dive Championships in Elkhart, Ind.
Dyer's time of 2:01.49 broke the old record, which she set earlier in the day during the prelims.
"I've been training the entire year for this," Dyer said. "So to have it happen and to be here, and to win and to break the record is all so unreal. I'm just really excited to swim."
The race wasn't perfect and came with a bit of stress. After the first 50 yards, which is the butterfly, Kirsten de Goede from Lindsey Wilson (KY) College had a full body-length lead over Dyer.
"I knew she was going to be out super fast 'cuz in prelims she was out pretty fast," Dyer said. "But I didn't expect her to go [that fast]. It's interesting from a swimmer's perspective because I could see her from my peripheral, which means they are ahead of you. But she was WAY far ahead of me, and I was like, 'Oh my goodness.'"
On the second leg -- the backstroke -- Dyer was able to catch up to de Goede and on the breaststroke leg, the TMU swimmer built a lead. But it was still very close.
"I turned for freestyle and put my head down and closed my eyes and prayed a little bit," she said. "Then I got to the wall and I was WOOOO!"
"I thought she came in and executed well," said TMU Head Coach Curren Bates. "She had a a little bout with sickness a couple weeks ago during conference [championships] that threw her off a little bit. But she did a really good job trusting in the Lord through that and coming in and executing well today."
Kylee Sears, last year's national champion in the 200-yard Freestyle, finished seventh in the 50-yard Free, making her an All-American in the event. She will look to repeat in the 200 on Friday.
"Kylee has battled back this year through some setbacks," Coach Bates said. "Typically she would have swam in the 500 Free today [which she qualified for]. And her best time would have won the race today. But we decided strategically to not do the 500 Free and do an off event, and she performed well [in the 50 Free]. She is the defending national title holder in the 200 Free, which is [Friday], so she wants to perform at her best [in that event]."
The Men's 200 free relay team of Dylan Crane, Nilton Dos Santos de Oliveira, Charley Sears and Tyler LeDet finished fifth with a new program record of 1:23.78. It's the highest finish for a relay in program history and ties both Crane and J.D. Torres's fifth place finishes last year as the highest ever on the men's team.
"Over the past two days the men's team has out-performed expectations," Bates said. "We've podiumed in every single relay so far. A little disappointing day on the individual side as we expected to be getting more guys into the finals. This meet has gotten so much faster in the last two years. Literally, times that aren't making into the top 16 [this year] would have been top 8 last year."
An example of that is the Men's 800 free relay. The team of de Oliveira, Crane, C. Sears and LeDet that finished sixth this year would have finished third last year with their time of 6:39.82. This year's mark broke the old TMU record by six seconds.
The Men's 200 medley relay, with the same four swimmers, took eighth with a 1:32.94.
With two more days to go in the meet, the men's team currently sits in ninth place and the women's team, with only two swimmers (Dyer and Sears) having competed so far, in 14th out of the 38 at the meet.
"Right now standings wise, the girls are doing better than teams that are swimming all the relays," Coach Bates said. "We just need to keep focusing on what we need to do and get it done."
Day three prelims will be held in the morning with the finals getting underway at 5 p.m. ET, 2 p.m. PT. You can watch the meet by clicking HERE and see official results by clicking HERE.
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