ST. GEORGE, Utah – The opening day of the PCSC Championships hosted by Dixie State University saw the Concordia men's swimming team move into third place and the women slot into eighth place in the early going.
 
Seniors Kayla Newman and Austin Wade got the day started well for the Eagles in the diving competition.  Newman finished 11th in 3m diving while Wade placed fifth in 1m diving.  Wade is a dual-sport athlete who also competed for CUI in men's water polo this past fall.

One of the highlights for the Green and Gold swimmers Wednesday came from a speedy quartet on the men's team.  Kyle Benjamin, Christopher Haygood, Andrew Dimino and Kyle Stocek dominated the 800 free relay by posting the third-fastest time in school history and the fastest time for a CUI unit in eight years (6:46.51).  

That meant that for the third time in four seasons, CUI won the 800 free relay.  This time the lead was a gigantic five seconds ahead of the second place squad. Benjamin's lead-off swim (1:40.26) was also a personal record (PR) and an NCAA "B" cut.
 
The men's 200 medley relay featuring freshman Thatcher Grooms, senior Ryan Martines, Jayden Hernandez and Alberto Cortes went toe-to-toe with a heavily-favored squad from Fresno Pacific.  The Eagles touched the wall with the second-fastest time in CUI history (1:30.66) and were the runner-up in that race by just 0.4 seconds. It's also the best relay time for CUI in this event since 2015.

In the men's 1000 free, Kyle Stocek placed fourth (9:45.15) which ranks him fourth all-time and good enough to make First Team All-PCSC.  Joey Molettieri joined Stocek on the First Team All-PCSC squad and moved up from ninth to seventh (9:55.54) by breaking into the Top 10.

The women's team found success in the 200 medley relay (Georgia Caraway, Bella Garritano, Sara Jones and Hailey Garcia) as the Eagles grabbed a hard fought fourth-place finish, which is now the fifth-fastest time in CUI history. 
 
In the women's 1000 free, Ryan Burke made First Team All-PCSC by placing sixth (10:41.22).  As a freshman, she is already sixth all-time at CUI in that event. Kendall Ruberio made Second Team by placing 16^th with a time of 11:10.95.


Day 2 prelims start at 8:30 PT (9:30am MT locally in Utah) and the finals are at 4:00 pm PT (5:00 pm MT). The divers get going at 11:00 am PT (12:00pm MT).  You can follow the video live stream at pacificswimanddive.org.