Having qualified both its full men's and women's roster for post-season, the Barton Community College swim teams concluded their inaugural season on Saturday, ending four days of competition in Fort Pierce, Florida at the NJCAA National Swimming and Diving Championships.
Despite not getting any points in the diving events, the Cougar men finished seventh through the fifty events with 313.5 points while the Lady Cougars', who also had a number of open events, finished with 105 points for 11th overall in the nation.
"I am over the moon with this meet!" said Head Coach Jonathan Reeder. "This is a one of a kind team. They make me thankful to have them, and excited for what the future brings! The future is bright, this is because of the team that came together this year! So proud!"
As both squads put together strong performances on the final day, Reagan Smyth was one of the highlighted achievements. Smyth began her memorable day in the first event, the 50 fly. Seeded 13th in the event, the Scott City, Kansas, freshman clocked a 27.49 for a fifth best prelim time. Needing to compete and finish the evening's finals, Smyth bettered her time by .02 to place 7th becoming the first Lady Cougar national medalist joining Sean Williams' 8th place in Wednesday's 50 breaststroke to earn Barton's first medalist honors. Two events later Smyth etched her name in the record book again becoming the first two-time Lady Cougar national medalist in placing 8th in the 100 free.
Along with Smyth's 23 point day, Kayla Hennen added another two points with a 15th national placing in the 200 breaststroke.
On the men's individual events, Barton received two individual medalists and just missed out on a third. Dawson Gantenbein began the Cougars' day qualifying for the 50 fly finals with a 24.13 prelim before earning officially earning his third national medalist honor with a 24.32 in taking 8th place. Clocking a 24.57 to take the ninth slot in prelims, William Spitz saw a 24.57 finals time to grab 6.5 points with a 10th place finish as the Cougars collected 17.5 points in the event.
The Cougars would tack on another 20 points in the 100 freestyle, led by William Spitz' 48.48 time to place 8th and earn the San Antonio, Texas, freshman his first individual national medal. Keagan Wilson held his ninth spot prelim placing in the finals with a 49.68 as each clocked season best times in prelims with a 47.92 and 48.43 respectively.
Gantenbein just narrowly missed his 4th medalist honor of the week by .14 seconds later in the day, clocking a 200 backstroke 1:59.06 ninth best time in prelims before a 2:00.71 time was .09 seconds out of the ninth place in finals to settle for a seven point 10th place. Noah Child earned the Cougars another point in the event after clocking a 2:09.25 in the prelims to ensure the point round before clocking a 2:12.16 for the 16th national spot.
Sean Williams concluded the individual events with a 15th national finish in the 200 breaststroke with a 2:18.69 prelim time to touch the wall in the evening session at 2:20.98.
The squads wrapped up their historic trip to nationals in the Championship finale 400 freestyle relays. Hennen, Mercedes Mahakijkittichai, Sydney Williams, and Smyth ended the meet in style with an 11th place season best time of 4:04.91. The Cougar men also had a great final event, exceeding their sixth seeding with a 4th place as William Spitz, Dawson Gantenbein, Noah Childs, and Keagan Wilson touched the wall in a season best 4:14.04.
Individual Medalists: (2 Women, 8 Men)
Women: Reagan Smyth (7th 50 Fly, 8th 100 Freestyle)
Men:
Sean Williams (8th 50 Breaststroke)
William Spitz (8th 100 Freestyle)
Keagan Wilson: (7th 50 Freestyle, 5th 100 Fly, 5th 200 Fly)
Dawson Gantenbein (4th 50 Backstroke, 8th 100 Backstroke, 8th 50 Fly)
Men's Relay Medalists: (4)
200 Medley 4th (Gantenbein, Williams, Wilson, Spitz),
400 Medley 6th (Gantenbein, Williams, Wilson, Spitz)
800 Freestyle 7th (Harbaugh, Childs, Pedigo, Williams)
400 Freestyle 4th (Spitz, Gantenbein, Childs, Wilson)
Complete Barton results: (Event, Name, Place, Event best time):
Women:
50 Breaststroke: Kayla Hennen, 14th, 34.56
1000 Freestyle: Sydney Williams, 16th, 12:22.32
200 IM: Open
50 Freestyle: Regan Smyth, 13th, 25.61; Mercedes Mahakijkittichai, 29th, 30.20
200 Medley Relay: (Mahakijkittichai, Hennen, Smyth, Williams), 10th, 2:03.33
50 Backstroke: Mercedes Mahakijkittichai, 22nd, 33.80
400 IM: Open
100 Fly: Reagan Smyth, 11th, 1:02.66; Kayla Hennen, 16th, 1:09.60
200 Freestyle: Sydney Williams, 17th, 2:12.14
400 Medley Relay: (Mahakijkittichai, Hennen, Smyth, Williams), 9th, 4:34.48
100 IM: Open
500 Freestyle: Sydney Williams, 19th, 6:06.92
100 Backstroke: Mercedes Mahakijkittichai, 21st, 1:16.95
100 Breaststroke: Kayla Hennen, 11th, 1:14.91
200 Fly: Open
800 Freestyle Relay: (Williams, Mahakijkittichai, Hennen, Smyth), 10th, 9:06.17
50 Fly: Reagan Smyth, 7th, 27.47
1650 Freestyle: Sydney Williams, 16th, 21:21.03
100 Freestyle: Reagan Smyth, 8th, 55.98
200 Backstroke: Mercedes Mahakijkittichai, 18th, 2:42.18
200 Breaststroke: Kayla Hennen, 15th, 2:47.33
400 Freestyle Relay: (Hennen, Mahakijkittichai, Williams, Smyth), 11th, 4:04.91
Men:
50 Breaststroke: Sean Williams, 8th, 28.13; Elijae Draper, 16th, 29.10
1000 Freestyle: Phane Pedigo, 20th, 11:49.55
200 IM: Open
50 Freestyle: Keagan Wilson, 7th, 21.33; William Spitz, 10th, 21.63; Elijae Draper, 17th, 23.23; Noah Childs, 22nd, 23.55; Corey Harbaugh, 24th, 23.63; Austin Levingston, 36th, 27.43
200 Medley Relay: (Gantenbein, Williams, Wilson, Spitz), 4th, 1:37.62
50 Backstroke: Dawson Gantenbein, 4th, 24.81; Noah Childs, 9th, 25.62; Phane Pedigo, 12th, 26.45
400 IM: Sean Williams, 14th, 4:37.88
100 Fly: Keagan Wilson, 5th, 51.54
200 Freestyle: Corey Harbaugh, 14th, 1:53.42
400 Medley Relay: (Gantenbein, Williams, Wilson, Spitz), 6th, 3:38.54
100 IM: William Spitz, 11th, 56.98; Elijae Draper, 14th, 1:00.93
500 Freestyle: Phane Pedigo, 16th, 5:10.93; Corey Harbaugh, 21st, 5:33.31
100 Backstroke: Dawson Gantenbein, 8th, 53.74; Noah Childs, 15th, 55.42
100 Breaststroke: Sean Williams, 12th, 1:02.85
200 Fly: Keagan Wilson, 5th, 1:56.22
800 Freestyle Relay: (Harbaugh, Childs, Pedigo, Williams), 7th, 7:32.28
50 Fly: Dawson Gantenbein, 8th, 24.13; William Spitz, 10th, 24.57
1650 Freestyle: Phane Pedigo, 13th, *time unavailable
100 Freestyle: William Spitz, 8th, 47.92; Keagan Wilson, 9th, 48.43; Elijae Draper, 17th, 53.72
200 Backstroke: Dawson Gantenbein, 10th, 1:59.20; Noah Childs, 16th, 2:09.25
200 Breaststroke: Sean Williams, 15th, 2:18.69
400 Freestyle Relay: (Spitz, Gantenbein, Childs, Wilson), 4th, 3:14.04