EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Saginaw Valley State University swimming and diving program sent eight to the NCAA Division II National Championships. The five-day meet started Tuesday, March 10 with Rory Kauffman competing in the dives and Carolina Bononi Heinz, Andrea Bustos, Samantha Fowler, and Lexi Hieber swimming the 800-yard freestyle relay.

The women's relay team took 12th with a program record time of 7:28.36, earning them Second Team All-America honors. Bononi Heinz started with a leg of 1:52.63, Bustos followed with 1:53.14, Fowler finished her 200 meters with a mark of 1:52.88, and Hieber had the best leg with a time of 1:49.71. Hieber's leg would be the 200 free program record for SVSU.

Kauffman had a solid performance in the preliminary diving competition and was just three points shy of the cut to move on. He finished 26th in the 1-meter and 16th in the 3-meter dives out of 39 competitors. He had scores of 232.10 and 253.20 in the six dives.

Up Next: Saginaw Valley swimming and diving continues the national meet on Wednesday, March 11 for day two. Hadyn Gould swims in the 200-yard individual medley at 10:00 AM and Hieber swims in the 1000-yard freestyle at 5:30 PM at the Deaconess Aquatic Center in Evansville, Indiana.