By Jami Sponaugle 

Chicago, Ill. - Day three and the conclusion of the Phoenix Fall Classic Invite hosted by the University of Chicago concluded on Sunday,  The Illinois Tech men's and women's swimming & diving team ended the meet with multiple personal best times, as well as a season best.

Mark Klinchin earned an NCAA B-cut in the 1650 men's freestyle with a season best time of 16:14.92. 

Seven personal-best times were recorded by Scarlet Hawk swimmers and divers on day three of the meet:

• Nethmi Bopearatchy set a new personal best time of 58.79 in the women's 100 freestyle.

• David Halmy set a new personal best time of 48.72 in the men's 100 freestyle.

• Lea Gore set a new personal best time of 1:04.79 in the women's 100 freestyle.

• Tianqi Li set a new personal best time of 1:03.60 in the men's 100 freestyle. 

• Kai Studt set a new personal best time of 2:24.43 in the men's 200 backstroke.

• Griffin Colomer set a new personal best score of 224.05 in the 11-dive 1 meter event. 

• Kacper Walczuk set a new personal best score of 190.70 in the 11-dive 1 meter event. 

Final Team Standings

• Women finished in 8th place with 209 points

• Men finished in 10th place with 176 points. 

Assistant Coach - Diving Dar Novak's Comments 

The entire team successfully completed their first big event. The 11-dive meet was a big challenge for our brand-new divers and an opportunity to give Evan Standish a chance to compete in some challenging dives in order to prepare Evan better for the next big dives on his list. In all, I feel like a lot was seen, learned, and absorbed throughout the weekend.

Assistant Swimming & Diving Coach Mac Robertson's Comments

All around, this was such a phenomenal meet with athletes on both sides obtaining some fast times and early season speed. Every single personal best, season best, school record, and NCAA B-cut will help propel the energy on the team as we progress into the second half of this season.

Volunteer Assistant Swimming & Diving Coach Seth Wissenbach's Comments

The end of a three-day competition is a tough one, but our athletes powered through with podium finishes, personal bests, and killer team spirit. Congrats to our athletes for a successful mid-season meet.

Interim Head Swimming & Diving Coach Billy Bafia's Comments

We came out of our mid-season meet with more confidence than ever that this season is going to be a strong one. Many of the times we achieved this weekend were on-track with pre-pandemic times. Returning to a regular season for our student-athletes was the goal for us as coaches, and this weekend proved that they are ready to be back to racing putting the pandemic behind them.

We are looking forward to the second half of our season. The team has a lot of quality training ahead of them and some level competition in January. Our next home meet against both North Central College and Manchester University will be an excellent opportunity for the team to showcase their hard winter-break training from our trip to Miami, Florida. The swimmers and divers are both coming together well as a team.

Up Next

The Hawks will return to the pool on January 14th when they host a double dual. They will welcome North Central College and Manchester University to Ekco Pool for a 1:00 p.m. start time.