HOLLAND, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University swimming and diving program kicked off the GLIAC Championships at the Holland Aquatic Center on Wednesday. The four-day meet held 11 events on the first day and both the men's and women's teams sit in fifth place afterwards. The men scored 91 points and are ahead of Davenport, Augustana, and Lake Superior State while the women scored 80 points, trailing Davenport by 30 points.

Combined, the programs had seven top-eight finishes. Benjamin Wainman had the top finish as he took third in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 9:09.53, smashing his record time from last year by three seconds. The other record-breaking time was also in the 1000-yard freestyle as Alexa Hieber was five seconds faster on her own record from last season, finishing in fourth place with a time of 10:09.46.

There were two other fourth-place finishes as the team of Hannah Martin Cook, Grace Charnstrom, Kaylene Darbee, and Roni Markwood finished the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:44.04, which was only 0.71 seconds behind the program record from 2018. In the 200-yard freestyle relay, Logan Fox, A'lmos Szedlak, Adam Bebars, and Eric Slabbert finished in a time of 1:20.80 to take fourth as well.

With a fifth-place finish, Hadyn Gould, Slabbert, Alvaro Rodriguez, and Fox were 0.04 seconds off the program record in the 200-yard medley relay with a Division II B Cut time of 1:27.86. Wainman and Hieber's times in the 1000-yard free also beat the DII B Cut standard. The other podium finishes were from Samantha Fowler and Markwood. Fowler finished the 200-yard individual medley in fifth with a time of 2:05.66 while Markwood finished seventh in the 50-yard free with a time of 23.99 seconds.

Up Next: The GLIAC Championships continue at the Holland Aquatic Center for day two of four on Thursday. The prelims start at 10:00 AM with the finals set for 5:30 PM EST.