FINAL RESULTS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - The Henderson State Red Wave programs swam against 2021 National Runner-Up Drury, falling to them, 187-113, while the women faced the Panthers and Division I Arkansas-Little Rock, coming up shy, 194-104 and 149-139, respectively. The HSU ladies came within 90 points of last year's fourth-place finishing team in Drury, while Little Rock lost to them by 103 points.
The story of the evening for the Red Wave men were the 200 free and 400 medley relay teams as the pair of quartets bookended the meet. Kicking off the head-to-head was
Lamar Taylor,
Jaren Tippett,
Jase Pinckney and
Jack Armstrong defeating Drury by a whole second to top the podium with a time of 3:20.04. Armstrong used a 43.69 100 free with the last leg of the relay to claim victory for HSU.
Armstrong, Pinckney and Taylor were not done yet as
Patryk Dabrowski joined the trio for the 200 free relay in the last event of the night. Capitalized by Taylor's 19.86 final 50 free leg, Henderson paced Drury's second-place relay by two and a half seconds for a time of 1:21.86.
Individually, Armstrong took first in both the 50 and 100 free as the former-Auburn transfer touched the wall in the 50 at 20.48 before posting a 44.86 in the 100 to cap off his individual performances. In the 50, HSU occupied first, second and third as Taylor and Pinckney followed closely behind Armstrong. Henderson swept the freestyle sprints after Dabrowski touched the wall first in the 200 free at 1:43.03.
Taylor and Pinckney tasted top honors in the 100 back (49.51) and the 100 butterfly (49.66), respectively. The Freeport, Bahamas native distanced himself from Drury's Nathan Bighetti by just over a second while the Mansfield High School product defeated Alejandro Villarejo of the Panthers by half a second.
On the women's side, the Red Wave got individual wins from true freshmen
Jayme Simmer and
Laci Long, as well as a pair of podium-topping performances from
Kiara Pozvai. Simmer got the winning started as she swam the 1000 free in 10:52.54. Simmer also placed second in the 500 free by seven hundredths of a second (5:15.81).
Long won both the 1 meter and 3 meter diving competitions, garnering 208.11 and 194.37 points, respectively. Pozvai proved opponent-proof as the sophomore topped the podium yet again in the 100 (50.94) and 200 free (1:53.70).
True freshman
Bianca Santiago saw two runner-up finishes in both the 100 (1:07.23) and 200 breast (2:23.25). In the 200, Santiago came up three hundredths of a second behind Drury's Claire Conover, who finished seventh at last season's National Championships in the same event. Emma Jorgenson followed suit with Santiago, placing second in the 200 IM with a time of 2:09.39.
Henderson State returns to the pool tomorrow when they host Oklahoma Christian for the home-opener of the 2022 fall season. The head-to-head meet from inside Wells Natatorium is set to start at 11 a.m.
