FINAL RESULTS

CLEVELAND, Miss. - For the first time since 2005, the Henderson State Red Wave men are New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference Champions.

Third-year HSU head coach and Red Wave alum Scotty Serio has produced a three-time National Champion, a Top-10 national program, and now, an NSISC Title.

"We have been talking about doing this the last two years, so to see it all come to fruition...I am just on cloud nine." Serio said. "The seniors on this team were [Coak Matthews'] last recruiting class. To make Coak proud like that, it just means a lot."

Serio swam for the late Coak Matthews at Henderson State. After serving as the McKinney High School swim coach, Serio returned to Henderson in 2021, continuing the legacy that Coach Matthews established so many years ago."

"It was always a dream to come back [and deliver a championship], but I never thought it would actually happen," Serio said. "To be given the opportunity by former-Athletics Director Shawn Jones and to be trusted with the program just means a lot."

Reigning CSCAA Division II Male Swimmer of the Year Lamar Taylor was named the Male Swimmer of the Meet to help produce the Red Wave's first conference title in nearly two decades.



Henderson State came into the day with a 70-point lead on second-place Delta State and opened that up to 97 points as HSU finished with 1042.5 points to Delta's 945.5.

The meet started off with day-two hero Hayden Jestes (middle) coming through yet again, posting a personal-best and school record time of 15:36.95 in the 1650-yard freestyle to take second place and 17 points. In the same race, true freshman Colton Bennett (left) (16:01.49) placed fifth for 14 points while Scott Doll (right) (16:07.00) took sixth for 13 points.



In the 100 free, the Red Wave cleaned up, posted four of the top five finishers and five of the top eight. Jack Armstrong (middle) paced the field with a podium-topping time of 42.76. Armstrong was followed by Lamar Taylor (second from right) (43.39), Patryk Dabrowski (second from left) (44.32) and Jase Pinckney (left) (45.09), all of whom posted at least NCAA 'B' cut times.

Tate Sloan (right) rounded out the Top-8 with his eighth-place swim time of 45.17. Combined, HSU garnered a whopping 77.5 points in the 100 free. 



Juan Diego Mantilla represented the Red Wave in the 200 backstroke, winning the B Final with a time of 1:52.34 to contribute nine points to the cause. Gabriel Vidal Simoes (1:57.21) claimed two points with his 15th-place finish

The Red Wave returned to dominance in the 200 breast as Mark Eberhard (left) recorded a school record with a time of 1:58.53, earning himself the automatic bid to 2024 Nationals. Eberhard's 17 points was met with Jaren Tippett (right) (2:02.10) and Oskar Cebula's (middle) (2:03.54) combined 27 points for their fifth and sixth-place finish, respectively.



Henderson St. saved its best event for last as Dabrowski, Armstrong, Sloan and Taylor as the anchor posted a new conference record in the 400 free relay with a time of 2:55.70.

Taylor's final touch induced the celebration from the Red Wave standing along the side of the pool, filling Ronald G. Mayers Aquatic Center with chants of "H-S, H-S, H-S, U!" as the 19-year drought was officially over.