Men's Swimming & Diving

2024 MAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championships Begin Tonight!

CARBONDALE, Ill.-- Southern Illinois University is set to host the 2024 MAC Men's Swimming and Diving Championship starting Wednesday, March 6 until Saturday, March 9. To follow along with the events check out our MAC Championship Central page.

For an all session ticket the price for an adult is $34, while single all-session passes are $12. CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS.

Preview Stories are courtesy of MAC Sports Information Departments

Ball State
After months of preparation, the Ball State men's swimming & diving program will put all its hard work to the test this week at the Shea Natatorium for the 2024 Mid-American Conference Championships.

Action in the four-day meet hosted by Southern Illinois begins Wednesday (March 6) with a pair of relay swims. Individual action gets underway Thursday (March 7) and will run through Saturday (March 9).

Live results will be available on meet mobile, while links for live video coverage will be provided on the official championship website: https://getsomemaction.com/tournaments/?id=218&path=mswim.

Ball State will be looking to build upon last season's success at the MAC Championships, in which it broke 12 program records, won a pair of event championships and claimed 11 total medals.

Ball State scored a total of 457 points and finished fourth overall as a team. It was the program's second-highest point total at the MAC Championships since 2005, trailing only the 511.50 scored in 2021.

In the latest NCAA Division I Top Time Rankings as compiled by CollegeSwimming.com, the Cardinals have 15 student-athletes ranked in scoring position in their respective events heading into the Mid-American Conference Championships.

Senior breaststroke specialist Joey Garberick is BSU's top-ranked student-athlete, holding the top spot in both the 100 (52.69) and 200 (1:58.67) breaststroke events.

Evansville
The University of Evansville men's swimming and diving team will kick off competition at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. at the Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium in Carbondale, Illinois.

The Purple Aces have not competed since placing fourth at the UIC Invitational on January 27.  UE has been hard at work in training the last four weeks preparing for the MAC Championships.  Evansville will turn to juniors Patrik Vilbergsson (Kopavogur, Iceland) and Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain) to lead the way.

Vilbergsson is a two-time second-team all-MAC performer for UE, and he ranks among the MAC's fastest competitors in multiple events this season.  Vilbergsson ranks second-fastest in the MAC this year in the 200-Yard Backstroke, having posted a time of 1:47.84 already this year.  He also ranks fifth-fastest this year in the 100 Back, and is ranked among the league's top 12 swimmers in the 500-Yard Freestyle.

Santos Lopez, meanwhile, owns the fourth-fastest 100-Yard Butterfly time this year in the MAC at 48.04, while also ranking among the league's leaders in both the 50- and 100-Yard Freestyle events.  Santos Lopez owns the UE school record in the 100 Fly, while Vilbergsson is the school record holder in the 200 Back.

Diving-wise, sophomore Levi McKinney (Boonville, Ind./Boonville) has earned MAC Diver of the Week honors twice this year, and has posted an NCAA Zone Qualifying score this season as well.

Miami
Preview coming soon… 

Missouri State
The Missouri State men's swimming & diving team heads to Carbondale, Illinois for the 2024 Mid-American Conference Men's Championships where it will compete for its fourth MAC title and first since 2020. The four-day meet will start on Wednesday, March 6 at 6:00 p.m. and end on Saturday, March 9 from Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium on the campus of Southern Illinois University. Event finals start at 6:00 p.m. with prelims beginning at 10:30 a.m. CT.

The meet will stream on the MAC Digital Network on getsomemaction.com/watch. Live scoring and results can be found on the Meet Mobile app. 

Bears Splashes

  • Missouri State is looking for its fourth-ever MAC Championship after joining the conference as an affiliate member in 2010. Its three championships in the conference came in 2014, 2018 and 2020. The Bears have been runner-ups six times (2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2023).

  • In its history, men's swimming has won 21 total championships across five different conferences (five MIAA titles: 1970-73, 1981, seven Mid-Continent titles: 1982-84, 1987-90, five MVC titles: 2000-01, 2003, 2005-06, one Sun Belt title: 2008, three MAC titles: 2014, 2018, 2020). 

  • Since joining the MAC, the Bears have only finished worse than third twice (2011-12).

  • Last season, Missouri State finished second to Miami (Ohio) by 41.5 points. The Redhawks enter this year's championship having won the last three MAC titles.

  • Head coach Dave Collins, fresh off his record 12th career MVC women's championship, enters this year's MAC men's championship with five MAC Coach of the Year awards (2013-14, 2017-18, 2020). 

  • Missouri State returns two of its four All-MAC first team swimmers from last season, seniors Dylan Moffatt and AJ Huskey. It also returns three of last year's four second team swimmers, senior Robert Hill, junior Brunno Suzuki-Tomiyama and sophomore Aiden Dunn.

Bears MAC Winners

  • Missouri State swimmers have won gold in the 200-yard freestyle each of the last five years. Suzuki-Tomiyama won the event in 2022 with a time of 1:37.03. 

  • The Bears have won seven consecutive golds in the 500-yard freestyle going back to 2017. Moffatt also won the event in 2022 with a time of 4:23.46.

  • Moffatt is the three-time reigning champion in the 1,650-yard freestyle, an event Missouri State has won each of the last nine seasons and 12 of the last 13 years.

  • Missouri State had a stretch of seven straight wins in the 200-yard individual medley from 2014 to 2020 by former Bears with three wins from Uvis Kalnins (2014-16), three from Arthur Ovath (2017-19) and one from Arthur Cury (2020). Kalnins' 2015 time of 1:44.03 remains the all-time MAC record.

  • Huskey is the defending 400 IM champion with a gold medal time of 3:49.04. Kalnins also holds the record from 2015 with a time of 3:46.00.

  • Before last season, the Bears had won three straight 800-yard freestyle relays before finishing second to Southern Illinois last season.

Southern Illinois
The Southern Illinois Swimming and Diving men's team is set to host the 2024 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championship in Shea Natatorium starting Wed. March 6th through Sat March 9th.

The men's team heads into the championship off a dual meet victory against MAC opponent, Ball State. The Salukis fended off the Cardinals 181-118 on Feb 10th. 

Key Salukis to look out for during the Championship include Alex Santiago, the two time MAC Swimmer of the Week who ended the regular season on a three meet streak of finishing in first in the 50-yard freestyle. Another key Saluki is Jack Khrypunov, also two time MAC Swimmer of the Week this season. Khrypunov recently set a school record in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:43.06. 

Day one of the MAC Championship will begin at 6 p.m. C.T. with the 200-medley relay followed by the 800 freestyle relay.

UIC
The UIC men's swimming and diving team will head downstate to compete in the 2024 Mid-American Conference (MAC) Championships Wednesday through Saturday at Southern Illinois' Dr. Edward J. Shea Natatorium in Carbondale, Ill.

COMMENT FROM SENIOR BEN RAMMINGER
"It's been a really long season, and we have all been putting in the work. I'm really excited to see my teammates swim at the MAC Championships because they have been swimming out of their minds for the past couple of dual meets. The work is really going to pay off here."

COMMENT FROM SENIOR HUNTER TRAUTMANN
"All of that training you've done has led up to this point for conference. We are going to put everything we have, everything we've built up, into the pool come time to swim our races and do our dives. It is really our chance to show all the hard work we've put in and just prove ourselves."

REGULAR SEASON IN REVIEW

  • The Flames finished the regular season competition with wins against Southern Indiana (200-98), Davenport (211-84), Evansville (145-88) and Valparaiso (174-60).

  • Sophomore Harrison Nolan (Riverside, Ill./Riverside Brookfield) had a memorable first season at UIC after transferring from Kentucky. Nolan earned MAC Diver of the Week honors five times and set the school record on both the one-meter and three-meter diving boards.

  • Sophomore Bruno Carrillo (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest) finished the regular season as the MAC Diver of the Week after posting top-three finishes in a Feb. 2 tri-meet against Valparaiso and Southern Illinois, followed up a day later at the UIC Diving Invitational.

  • Junior Cole Tremewan (Ann Arbor, Mich./Pioneer) earned MAC Diver of the Week honors in November, when he was the lone UIC competitor to have a top-three individual finish at IUPUI's House of Champions Meet. The junior scored 363.95 points to place second in the three-meter event.

  • Senior Ben Ramminger (Deforest, Wis./Deforest Area) collected UIC's lone MAC Swimmer of the Week award this season after first-place finishes in the 50 breaststroke (26.62), 100 breaststroke (58.03) and 200 individual medley (1:55.07) on Oct. 27 at Milwaukee.

  • Freshman Jack Mills (Toronto, Ontario/Lawerence Park Collegiate Institute) finished first in the 500 freestyle (4:38.48) and 1,000 freestyle (9:27.71) events against Valparaiso and Southern Illinois on Feb. 2.

  • In his last individual event of the regular season, also on Feb. 2, senior Liam Davis (Naperville, Ill./Plainfield North) edged out SIU's Ian Marshall by inches to win the 400 individual medley in a time of 4:01.92.

Valpo
Preview story coming soon…