For the second straight year hardware will be returning to Great Bend as the Barton Community College swimming programs had a solid four-day performance at the NJCAA National Swimming & Diving Championships held at the Anne Wilder Aquatic Complex in Fort Pierce, FL.

Sitting in third place following opening day action, the Lady Cougars remained steady over the final three days, in securing the program's second straight third place finish and program's third-straight top-4 finish with a 560-point accumulation over the 25 events.

Capturing the team title was Indian River as the Pioneers captured their 42nd constitutive national championship with a four-day total 1,374. Finishing runner-up was Southwestern Oregon with 674 while Jamestown came in fourth place 138 points back of Barton.

Highlighting the women performances was long distance specialist Aleksandra Cicha. Making her first appearance on the big stage, the freshman recorded the Cougars top individual finishes with a trio of fourth placings. Cicha's biggest impact came on the opening day swimming to the program's second fastest time (11:14.23) in the 1000-yard freestyle.

Cicha also aided to one of the team's highest relay finishes, taking the second leg following Silvana Jacquez Viveros opening shift while giving way to Caroline Tipton and Elena Lara as the four-pack combined for the program's fifth fastest 800-yard freestyle relay stoppage (8:25.99) in earning the first of three team third place finishes.

Lara led team high point honors with 54, as the freshman assisted within Barton's other pair of third place relay finishes while picking up two sixth's and a fifth place individually. The final 50-point producer was Jacquez 51, as the sophomore's highest individual finish came in the 200-yard backstroke (2:14.00).

Joining Lara and Jacquez Viveros on both third place 200-yard and 400-yard medley relays was Claire Holt and Caroline Tipton.

On the men's side, Barton stayed within arm's reach of hardware but was unable to overcome the point differential down the stretch in placing fourth for the second straight year and inside the top-4 for the fifth straight season earning 467 points.

Indian River State claimed the program's 50th straight national title behind 1,330 points with Southwest Oregon finishing runner-up at 806 and Iowa Central Community College rounding out in third with 590 points.

Barton's lone national title came in Thursday's final event of the 200-yard medley relay with Javan Titus, Ethan Baylin, Dominik Strba and Louis Ainley topping the seven team field in 3:20.78 falling 0.19-seconds off the program's top time. The four-pack nearly doubled up with a second national title in Friday's 200-medley relay finishing runner-up with the second quickest time in program history (1:30.93).

Individually Ainley highlighted the men performances capturing national runner-up finishes and the programs quickest times in the 50-yard backstroke (22.55) and 100-backstroke (49.20). The freshman's final podium finish came in the 50-breaststroke earning a third place and third quickest time in program history (25.37).

Overall, both squads combined for over 50 personal and/or season bests during the preliminary or final rounds.

Barton Women's Results
50 Backstroke: 7th – Silvana Jacquez Viveros (28.92 SB); 9th – Shaylynn Hanes (30.97 PB)
50 Breaststroke: 9th – Rachel Sims (34.23 PB - *6th program fastest); 10th - Shaylynn Hanes (34.37 PB - *8th program fastest)
50 Butterfly: 7th – Claire Holt (26.97 PB - 6th program fastest); 10th – Rachel Sims (28.21 PB - 9th program fastest)
50 Freestyle: 8th – Claire Holt (25.53 PB - 7th program fastest); 9th – Caroline Tipton (26.44 PB)
100 Backstroke: 7th – Silvana Jacquez Viveros (1:01.99 SB); 8th – Caroline Tipton (1:05.20 PB - 8th program fastest); 9th – Catarina Contes Tribst (1:07.07 PB)
100 Breaststroke: 10th – Shaylynn Hanes (1:17.45 PB - 8th program fastest); 13th – Maria Orlandi Genizelli (1:24.32)
100 Butterfly: 9th – Claire Holt (1:01.59 PB - 6th program fastest); 12th – Rachel Sims (1:08.92)
100 Freestyle: 9th – Caroline Tipton (56.67 PB - 10th program fastest)
200 Backstroke: 5th – Silvana Jacquez Viveros (2:14.00); 8th – Catarina Contes Tribst (2:29.23 SB); 10th – Reagan Huslig (2:36.35)
200 Breaststroke: 11th – Shaylynn Hanes (2:53.77)
200 Butterfly: 5th – Elena Lara (2:18.28 PB - 6th program fastest)
200 Freestyle: 5th – Caroline Tipton (2:05.88 PB); 6th – Silvana Jacquez Viveros (2:07.68); 9th – Catarina Contes Tribst (2:13.95 PB); 12th – Reagan Huslig (2:26.31)
100 IM: 7th – Claire Holt (1:03.66 PB - 4th program fastest)
200 IM: 13th – Catarina Contes Tribst (2:37.04 PB)
400 IM: 6th – Elena Lara (5:09.58 PB - 4th program fastest)
500 Freestyle: 4th – Aleksandra Cicha (5:27.54); 6th – Maria Orlandi Genizelli (5:55.25); 10th – Paige Mink (6:11.38 PB); 13th – Reagan Huslig (6:40.28)
1000 Freestyle: 4th – Aleksandra Cicha (11:14.23 PB - 2nd program fastest); 6th -Elena  Lara (11:41.96); 7th – Maria Orlandi Genizelli (12:04.86); 13th – Paige Mink (13:07.00); 14th – Reagan Huslig (13:10.15 PB)
1650 Freestyle: 4th Aleksandra Cicha (19:06.67); 5th – Elena Lara (19:18.01); 7th – Maria Orlandi Genizelli (20:10.23 SB); 13th – Paige Mink (21:42.92 PB)
1-Meter Diving: 6th – Rachel Sims (166.50)
200 Freestyle Relay: 5th – Caroline Tipton, Maria Orlandi Genizelli, Rachel Sims, Claire Holt (1:47.49)
400 Freestyle Relay: 5th – Silvana Jacquez Viveros, Aleksandra Cicha, Catarina Contes Tribst, Claire Holt (3:50.33)
800 Freestyle Relay: 3rd – Silvana Jacquez Viveros, Aleksandra Cicha, Caroline Tipton, Elena Lara (8:25.99 PB - 5th program fastest)
200 Medley Relay: 3rd – Silvana Jacquez Viveros, Claire Holt, Elena Lara, Caroline Tipton (1:55.53 PB - 5th program fastest)
400 Medley Relay: 3rd – Silvana Jacquez Viveros, Claire Holt, Elena Lara, Caroline Tipton (4:19.92)

Barton Men's Results
50 Backstroke: NATIONAL RUNNER-UP – Louis Ainley (22.55 PB – SCHOOL RECORD)
50 Breaststroke: 3rd – Louis Ainley (25.37 PB - 3rd program fastest); 4th – Javan Titus (25.44 PB - 4th program fastest); 5th Ethan Baylin (25.72 PB - 6th program fastest); 16th – Cameron Howell (30.05 PB)
50 Butterfly: 21st – Joel DeFever (25.53 PB); 24th – Juwayne Silmon, Jr. (27.07 PB)
50 Freestyle: 6th – Ethan Baylin (20.71); 20th – Javan Titus (22.68 PB); 21st – Joel DeFever (23.03 PB); 30th – Juwayne Silmon, Jr. (25.84)
100 Backstroke: NATIONAL RUNNER-UP – Louis Ainley (49.20 PB – SCHOOL RECORD)
100 Breaststroke: 4th – Javan Titus (56.50 PB - 4th program fastest); 5th – Ethan Baylin (56.58 PB - 6th program fastest); 11th – Brenden Swindle (1:00.69 SB); 15th – Cameron Howell (1:07.97 PB)
100 Freestyle: 6th – Ethan Baylin (45.38 PB - 2nd program fastest); 24th – Cameron Howell (54.94 PB)
200 Backstroke: 10th – Felipe Buccelli (2:06.99)
200 Breaststroke: 9th – Dominik Strba (2:09.56 PB - 6th program fastest); 14th – Brenden Swindle (2:15.03 PB); DQ – Javan Titus (2:14.86 in prelims)
200 Butterfly: 3rd – Dominik Strba (1:53.18 PB - 4th program fastest); 9th – Konrad Kozlowski (2:02.10 PB); 11th – Luigi Ballivian (2:02.61 SB)
200 Freestyle: 11th – Brenden Swindle (1:49.23 PB); 12th – Felipe Buccelli (1:55.76); 13th – Joel DeFever (1:56.03)
100 IM: 3rd – Louis Ainley (50.10 PB – SCHOOL RECORD); 16th – Juwayne Silmon, Jr. (1:03.31 PB)
200 IM: 7th – Dominik Strba (1:55.86 PB - 3rd program fastest); 11th – Brenden Swindle (2:02.92 PB)
400 IM: 8th – Dominik Strba (4:08.21 PB - 3rd program fastest); 13th – Luigi Ballivian (4:29.83 SB)
500 Freestyle: 9th – Konrad Kozlowski (4:53.22); 14th – Felipe Buccelli (5:16.02); 17th – Joel DeFever (5:33.56 PB)
1000 Freestyle: 8th – Konrad Kozlowski (10:12.76); 14th – Luigi Ballivian (10:35.63 PB); 16th – Felipe Buccelli (11:05.55)
1650 Freestyle: 7th – Konrad Kozlowski (16:48.05); 10th – Luigi Ballivian (17:35.85 PB - 8th program fastest)
200 Freestyle Relay: 4th – Louis Ainley, Brenden Swindle, Javan Titus, Ethan Baylin (1:23.97 PB - 3rd program fastest)
400 Freestyle Relay: 4th – Louis Ainley, Brenden Swindle, Dominik Strba, Ethan Baylin (3:09.42)
800 Freestyle Relay: 4th – Dominik Strba, Brenden Swindle, Luigi Ballivian, Konrade Kozlowski (7:21.46)
200 Medley Relay: NATIONAL RUNNER-UP – Louis Ainley, Javan Titus, Dominik Strba, Ethan Baylin (1:30.93 PB - 2nd program fastest)
400 Medley Relay: NATIONAL CHAMPIONS – Javan Titus, Ethan Baylin, Dominik Strba, Louis Ainley (3:20.79 PB – 2nd program fastest)