Swim breaks multiple school records in home meet

COLUMBUS, Ga. (Nov. 21, 2021) – The Point University men's and women's swim teams hosted the Georgia Small College Championship Invite Friday and Saturday at the Columbus Aquatic Center in Columbus, Georgia. Out of six teams on both the men's and women's sides, the men's team finished fifth, and the women's team finished sixth.

Point finished with 63 points on the women's side, and No. 3 SCAD Savannah won with 1,064.50 points. Point finished with 208.50 points on the men's side, and No. 3 St. Thomas won with 1,242.50 points. Out of the combined team scores, St. Thomas won with 1,900.50 points, and Point finished in fifth with 271.50 points.

The men's team broke four school records throughout the weekend, with Connor Cochran setting a new record in the men's 1,000 free with 10:06.68. Felipe Aguilar previously set the record in 2016 at 10:10.90. Cochran finished sixth out of 10 participants in the event.

Freshman Josiah Blair set a new school record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 57.57. Blair was the opening leg in the men's 400 medley relay, but the team was disqualified for an early take-off on the fourth leg. Haleem Bashir set the previous record for the 100 backstroke in 2019 with a time of 58.34.

Xavier Philips continued his strong performance by breaking the school record in the 100 free with a time of 48.52. Philips previously held the record with a time of 48.62, which he set back in 2020. Philips also led the team with a third-place finish in the 50 free with a time of 21.75, earning 16 points to the team's total.

The 4x100 freestyle relay team of Blair, Philips, Jaxon Kite and Rayden Hector broke the school record with a time of 3:20.29. The previous record was set back in 2018 at 3:20.74. The team finished in sixth out of nine teams in the event and earned 26 points.

The men's 200 medley relay team of Blair, Kite, Philips and Will Kelly finished in seventh place with a time of 1:42.22 to earn 24 points for the team, and in the 200 freestyle relay, Kite, Blair, Cochran and Philips earned 22 points with an eighth-place finishing time of 1:32.66 and the team of Mitchell Crane, Jacob Copeland, Kelly and Hector finished in ninth, earning 18 points with a time of 1:35.71.

On the women's side, the relay team of Maddie Donnelly, Hayley Akbari, Nica Pretorius and Taylor Sturgis earned 14 points in the 200 medley relay, finishing in 10th with a time of 2:21.49 and the team earned 24 points finishing with a time of 4:41.22 in the 400 freestyle relay.

Next, Point will compete in its final meet of the 2021 portion of its season Dec. 3-4, at the SCAD Invitational in Savannah, Georgia. Point will then compete in three meets in January before turning its attention to the AAC Championships Feb. 10-12.