ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul swimming and diving team will kick off the postseason at the 2023-24 NSIC Swimming and Diving Championships on Feb. 14-17 at the Midco Aquatics Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
 
"We are excited to be competing at Conference Championships this week, the most anticipated meet of the season," commented Head Coach Rachel Busch. "The women have put 'money in the bank' all season with their dedication to hard work and supporting each other. Now it's time to cash in on all of that with fast swims and high dive scores," Busch added. "We are pumped for a great meet."
 
MEET INFORMATION
Action will begin on Wednesday morning and will conclude on Saturday night. Each day will be divided up into two sessions. Preliminaries will start at 10 a.m. and finals will begin at 5:30 p.m. For more information on the event and ticketing, please visit the 2024 Northern Sun Swimming and Diving Championship.
 
EVENT LIST
Wednesday
Prelims: 200 IM, 50 Freestyle and 1000 Freestyle
Finals: 200 Medley Relay, 1000 Freestyle, 200 IM, 50 Freestyle and 800 Freestyle Relay
 
Thursday
Prelims: 100 Butterfly, 400 IM, 200 Freestyle and 3-Meter Dive
Finals: 100 Butterfly, 400 IM, 200 Freestyle, 3-Meter Diving and 400 Medley Relay
 
Friday
Prelims: 500 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke and 200 Butterfly
Finals: 500 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly and 200 Freestyle Relay
 
Saturday
Prelims: 100 IM, 100 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 200 Breaststroke, 1650 Freestyle and 1-Meter Dive
Finals: 1650 Freestyle, 100 IM, 100 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 200 Breaststroke, 1-Meter Dive and 400 Freestyle Relay
 
CSCAA SCHOLAR ALL-AMERICA TEAM RECOGNITION
Last week, the Golden Bears were named to the CSCAA Scholar All-America Team for the fourth consecutive semester. Their GPA of 3.48 marks the highest since first earning the honor in the Spring of 2021. Concordia-St. Paul was one of the eight NSIC teams named to the All-America Team, as Northern State led the way with a team GPA of 3.58.
 
VEKONY NAMED MYLES BRAND ALL-ACADEMIC SELECTION
Last Friday night during halftime of the women's basketball game against Sioux Falls, Concordia-St. Paul honored their NSIC leading 33 recipients of the Myles Brands All-Academic with Distinctions award. Senior Laura Vekony made history as the first-ever Golden Bear from the swimming and diving program to receive this honor that requires seniors to possess a 3.75 or higher GPA.
 
LAST TIME OUT
CSP battled a pair of tough opponents in the No. 24 Minnesota State and Division I St. Thomas in their final meet of the regular season. The Golden Bears performed well, collecting six first-place finishes before falling to the Mavericks, 205-92, and the Tommies, 177-119.
 
Farida Maher led the Golden Bears with a trio of first-place finishes. The junior added momentum heading into the postseason with victories in the 100, 500, and 100 freestyles, for which she was an NSIC All-Conference runner-up a season ago.
 
For the second straight week, Caitlyn Greenwalt swept the diving events for the Navy and Gold. The sophomore finished first in the 3-meter dive with a score of 243.25 and capped off the meet with a victory in the 1-meter dive with a score of 231.35.
 
Freshman Sophie Leo was also impressive, with three top-three finishes for the Golden Bears. She collected a first-place finish in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24.43 while adding a second-place finish in the 100 backstroke and a third-place finish in the 100 freestyle.
 
In her final meet at Two Rivers Aquatic Center, Vekony collected a pair of top-10 finishes. The Budapest, Hungary native finished eighth in the 1000 freestyle with a time of 11:42.08 and added a 10th-place finish in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:23.79.
 
In the opening relay of the meet, the team of Leo, Chloe Rihon, Rebecca Hildebrand and Maher collected a fourth-place finish in the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:51.36.
 
Action concluded with the 200 freestyle relay. The team of Rebecca Hildebrand, Marianna Perna, Sierra Sherry and Emma Granovsky finished the relay fifth at 1:44.63, with the regular season officially ending.
 
ABOUT THE NSIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
At the NSIC Championships, the team that scores the most points will be named conference champions. Three teams have claimed team championships in the short nine-year history of the NSIC Swimming and Diving Championships that began in the 2012-13 season. Last season, the Augustana Vikings claimed their first NSIC Championship, joining Minnesota State (3) and St. Cloud State (5) as the third team to reach champion status.
 
The top 16 competitors in each event will receive points, the top eight will reach the podium and the top-three finishers will be named NSIC All-Conference performers. The swimmer who scores the most points throughout the meet will be named Swimmer of the Meet, and the diver with the most points will be named Diver of the Year. Swimmer of the Year, Diver of the Year and Coach of the Year honors will be voted on during the meet and presented at the end of the meet.
 
For relay events, each school can enter two teams into the competition. The top 17 performing teams will receive points, with the champion receiving 44 points and the final finishing placing team receiving two points.
 
No. 15 Augustana be the only team in the NSIC ranked in the CSCAA Top-25 Poll. Sioux Falls, who has been ranked throughout the season, is currently receiving the most votes from the outside looking in, with six votes.
 
HISTORY AT THE NSIC CHAMPIONSHIPS
This year marks the fourth time in program history that the Golden Bears will appear at the NSIC Championships. Since debuting in the 2021 season, CSP has improved its team score each season.
 
Sydney Fleming (2021-23) and Vekony made CSP history as the first swimmers to compete at the conference meet for the Golden Bears back in February 2021. Vekony became the first CSP swimmer to record points at the meet after tallying four points with a 14th-place finish in the 200 butterfly.
 
In 2022, Maher led the Golden Bears with 63 of the team's 89 points at the meet. She had a historic showing at the meet with a pair of All-Conference honors after collecting a second-place finish in the 200 freestyle and a third-place finish in the 500 freestyle. Her strong showing, which included four total NCAA B-Cut times and four personal best times, was enough to name her NSIC Freshman of the Year. Vekony added a strong showing with 11 points and set six personal best times, and Charly Horn scored nine points and set four personal best times.
 
Last season, CSP collected their best finish to date at the NSIC Championship with 131 points. They finished ahead of the MSU Moorhead Dragons, who had 97 points and were shy of the seventh-place Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs, who had 154 points. Maher added four more All-Conference finishes with B-Cut runner-up finishes in the 100, 200, 500 and 1000 freestyles. Horn finished second on the team in points, scoring 10 points after recording five points in both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, while Vekony added seven points of her own with four points in the 200-yard butterfly and three points in the 1650 freestyle.
 
LAST CHANCE MEET
Following the NSIC Championships, swimmers and divers across the conference will have one last opportunity to hit qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II Championships that will be held on Mar. 13-16 at the SPIRE Aquatics Center in Geneva, Ohio. The last chance qualifier will be hosted by the Sioux Falls Cougars on Feb. 24 at the Midco Aquatics Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.