CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. – Shattering a program record and earning multiple NCAA DIII qualifying standards in the previous two days, the Centre swimming & diving teams stepped up to compete in the final day of the Gail Moll Pebworth Invitational hosted by Wabash College. The men and women finished the meet with arguably their strongest day, both teams finishing second overall in the final standings. The women would end the weekend with 2405 points total, only 62 behind first-place DePauw. The men were just shy of cracking 2000 points, their 1995.5 overall 312.5 past third-place Wabash College.
 
"With as deep of a field as there was for us to finish second [on both sides] was amazing." praised head coach Dean Brownley, "The thing that I noticed was how deep we are. I knew our women had a chance of being good on the relays but didn't think we'd win all five like we did. A lot of different people scored for us, which is something we've lacked the last couple of seasons."
 
Diving kicked off the final day as the first events to final, Brandon Anderson leading the Colonels on the men's three-meter (11 dives) with 427.8 points total. The freshman was less than 13 points away from the NCAA DIII Regional qualifying standard, about 33 points behind the third-place finisher from Franklin who qualified for the 2022 NCAA DIII Championships last season. Jonah Crenshaw also competed out in the event, the freshman totaling 200.95 points overall to end the event eighth.
 
The swimming events would kick off with the mile on Sunday afternoon, Centre placing three student-athletes in the top 10 of the women's 1650 free. Samantha Coffey head the Gold and White with her 18:08.46 time at third place overall, pacing 1:05's and 1:06's 100's for a majority of the race. Greer Manger would finish close behind her, her 18:36.92 final time in the event earning her 28 team points as the seventh-place finisher overall. Anneliese Thomas would round out the Colonels in the top ten, the sophomore ending her race ninth in the field on a 18:41.47 final time. Carter Dilger would continue his strong invitational performance with a top-five finish on the men's side of the event, the junior pushing a 16:51.08 final time. Dilger's final 350 yards would push him through the top-five performance, out-splitting the sixth-place competitor to beat him out by four seconds.
 
The women would have another three-person event in the invitational's 100 IM, Natalie Cox finishing her event as the meet's runner-up on a 1:01.00 final time. Freshman teammate Emma Daman wouldn't be far behind her, her strong :28.07 first 50 brought her to a fourth-place, 1:02.13 time. Audrey beck would be the Gold and White's final member of the top ten, the senior touching the wall seventh overall for a 1:02.87 note on the stopwatch. Ben Wafford would represent the men's side in a top-eight performance of his own, the freshman's :30.23 final-50 split boosting him up to eighth place overall on a :56.36 time.
 
Centre would post a pair of freshman in the third-place spot in the men's and women's 200 back, Dustin Niebauer out-splitting the fourth-place student-athlete by over two seconds to earn the bronze medal on a 1:54.41 time. Jacob Sanders would also make his way inside the men's top 10, sneaking in at tenth place overall with his 2:01.49 final time. Caroline Lee would continue her dominant freshman campaign with a 2:08.34 in the women's event, touching the wall 1.48 seconds ahead of the fourth-place finisher from Birmingham-Southern.
 
The Gold and White would slam down two more top-three finishers in the 100 free, Callie West highlighting the women's side with another event victory on her 2022 Wabash Invitational resume. The sophomore would be .03 seconds off the NCAA DIII B-cut and .01 seconds away from tying her own program record, posting a :51.58 winning time. Centre would feature two more student-athletes in the top ten, Elise Burch rounding the top five after posting a second 50 yards under 28 seconds to finish with a :53.40 overall. Olivia Headley would join the top-ten in the event, the freshman tying for eighth place overall with a :54.34 time. Kai Oddo would represent the men with a bronze medal in the men's 100 free, the junior posting a strong :46.48 final time to only be .49 seconds from topping the Centre record originally set in 2009.
 
A pair of Colonels would make their way into the A-final of the 200 breast, Wafford swimming his second individual event of the day with a fourth-place finish for the men's side. The Louisville, Ky., native would touch the wall on a 2:10.28 final time while Cox would earn another medaled finish in the women's side of the 200 breast. The Madison, Miss., native would outdo the fourth-place finisher by over a second in her 2:25.47 swim, her second 100 yards of the race being the second-fastest in the field.
 
Becker would post another Centre top-three finish in the women's 200 fly, the senior finishing the event on a 2:12.98 final time for third place overall. Senior teammate Claire Pellegrin would join her in the A-final of the event, the senior from Memphis, Tenn., touching the wall on a 2:17.27 finish that would beat out the eighth-place competitor by .38 seconds. The men would find three members of the Gold and White in the top ten of the event, Jackson Fears swimming a 1:53.69 mark in the 200 fly to finish second overall. The Colonels would also post two first-year members of the program in the top ten as well, freshman Calvin Mar dropping under two minutes for an eighth-place, 1:59.56 final time while Dilger appeared in another event on Sunday with a tenth-place, 2:00.18 time in the event.
 
Centre would round out the meet in the 400 free relay, the women's team earning another NCAA DIII qualifying mark in a relay with their 3:29.52 event victory. The Colonels dominated the event, winning the race by over six seconds by the crew of Burch, Lee, Manger and West. The men would follow-up and finish the invitational with a strong fifth-place performance of their own in the event, less than two seconds off the program record with a 3:09.13 time by Wyatt Fulton, Fears, Henry Lang and Oddo.
 
With the final meet of the semester behind them, the Colonels will look to build their momentum through the start of the new year in the second semester of action. They'll next compete in Danville, Ky., hosting the annual Colonel Classic on Friday, Jan. 6 and Saturday, Jan. 7.

DAY TWO (Saturday)
After earning an NCAA qualifying cut during Friday's session, the Centre swimming & diving teams carried their momentum through day two on Saturday of the Gail Moll Pebworth Wabash Invitational with multiple event victories. Although the Colonels still rank second on both sides with one day to go, the women extended their lead on third-place Birmingham Southern with 1423.5 points while the men eclipse the 1000-point marker with 1019.5 overall.
 
Similar to Friday's session, Centre kicked off the meet with an event win, this time during the prelims session for the women's 800 free relay. The Gold and White dropped almost 19 seconds from their entry time, the squad of Elise Burch, Caroline Lee, Greer Manger and Callie West combining for a 7:43.05 time. Manger and West brought home the win in the back-half of the relay, the duo being the only student-athletes among the field to have a split under 1:56.
 
The men were able to perform a huge time drop as well in the 800 free relay, the Colonels finishing third overall for a bronze medal off a 7:01.07 final time. The team of Wyatt Fulton, Carter Dilger, Henry Lang and Jackson Fears were able to stay ahead of fourth-place Franklin by four seconds, Fears pushing that gap by out-splitting the Grizzley anchor by 3.8 seconds.
 
Diving opened up their competition at the invitational on Saturday, performing some excellent sets in the men's one-meter championship final (11 dives). Brandon Anderson crushed the NCAA Regional Qualifying standard in his first collegiate 11-dive performance, the freshman finishing second overall with 451.3 points off a 23.6 degree of difficulty. Jonah Crenshaw also finished among the event's top-10 finishers, Crenshaw totaling 250 points overall in the event, with Sam Feingold ending right behind him with 197.55 points.
 
Centre's women's team would soon after win another relay in the meet, the squad of Lee, West, Manger and Natalie Cox dropping five seconds from their seed time for a 1:46.48 final time. The team would edge out second-place DePauw by .43 seconds, the team also .37 seconds away from tying the program record set in 2009.
 
Senior Audrey Becker would find her way into the top-10 finishers in the women's 400 IM, Becker rolling under five minutes to have a finals time of 4:47.69. The fifth-place finisher would beat out the sixth-place finalist by less than a second, her 100 fly split in the event being the fastest in the A-final.
 
Centre would later place three student-athletes in the A-Final of the women's 100 fly, West highlighting the event by winning off a :55.54 final time. After earning a :55.59 best-time at the 2022 SAA Championships last season, the Lexinginton, Ky., native jumped under the NCAA DIII B-cut standard while breaking her own program record on Saturday. West dropped .83 seconds from prelims before earning gold, freshman Emma Daman performing a .31-second time drop on her way to a top-five finish in the event with a :59.47 time. Senior Claire Pellegrin would also make an appearance among the event's top-10 swimmers, Pellegrin finishing tenth overall on a 1:01.21 time. The men would follow up with two top-10 finishers of their own, Fears finishing eighth with a :51.67 time and junior Dilger ended the event tenth with a :52.11.
 
The Colonels continued to place multiple student-athletes in the A-final of events, including the 200 free. The women started the meet with three among the meet's best, Manger heading the Gold and White with a 1:57.79 time at sixth. Burch finished right behind her at seventh overall, over a second past the eighth-place finisher at 1:57.86. Katelynn Stanczyk rounded out the Colonels in the final, her 2:02.04 time placing her at tenth overall. Wyatt Fulton and Lang duo'd in the men's 200 free, finishing eighth and seventh, respectively, by both dropping 1:46 final times. Senior Lang would end his race in a 1:46.77 while Fulton swam close in a 1:46.89 final time.
 
The men would send two more up top in the men's 100 breast, Ben Wafford heading the way for the Gold and White by finishing seventh overall in the event off a :58.91 time. Sophomore Fears would drop a half second from his prelims time, ending the event in ninth overall with a :59.1 time. Although Centre would only place one in the women's 100 breast, Natalie Cox excelled in the event up to her third-place finish in the event. The freshman would finished almost three seconds ahead of the fourth-place finisher, her 1:06.53 final time being almost five seconds lower than her entry time.
 
Centre would end the final events on Saturday with a pair of third-place finishers in the 100 back, Lee representing the women with her :58.38 finish. The freshman would drop a half second from her prelim time earlier in the day, her strong 30.01 back-half earning her another spot up by out-splitting the fourth-place finisher. Kai Oddo would lead the men's side in his third-place :51.39 time, his :26.47 second-50 split crediting him the pass on the fourth-place finisher as well. Freshman Dustin Niebauer would also appear in the event's top five, Niebauer dropping over a second from his entry time in the event to touch the wall fifth overall on a :51.81 final time.
 
The swimming & diving teams have one more day of competition in the Wabash Invitational, ending it all on Sunday. Prelims will start at 10 a.m., diving at 1 p.m., distance events at 3 p.m. and finals finally at 5:30 p.m. ET. The events on day three will consist of the women's one-meter diving, men's three-meter diving, the 1650 free, 100 IM, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.

DAY ONE (Friday)
Kicking off their midseason invitational before Thanksgiving next week, the Centre swimming & diving teams faced off in the first day of the Gail Moll Pebworth Invitational all day on Friday. The prelim-final meet showcased several thrilling times for the Colonels, including a relay that jumped under the 2023 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving qualifying standard. Centre currently ranks second place in the team standing on both the men's and women's sides, the women holding 552.5 points (24 from first) and the men hoisting 402 points (52 ahead of third) after the first day. 
 
The cut was earned for the Gold and White in the first event of the meet, Centre winning the women's 200 free relay by almost two seconds among the entire field. Their 1:35.37 time was a combined effort from Olivia Headley, Greer Manger, Caroline Lee and Callie West, the relay being the only squad to have the final two legs split under 24 seconds in the race. The winning relay also set a meet record in the event, the former mark originally set by Franklin in 2019.
 
Manger would also make appearance in the top five spots alongside freshman Samantha Coffey in the women's 500 free, the junior dropping three seconds from her prelim time to earn a bronze medal in her 5:12.97 finish. Coffey wouldn't be far behind Manger in the results, dropping almost four seconds from her own prelim time to move up three spots on a 5:15.58 swim.
 
The men would feature several strong swims in the men's 500 as well, placing two student-athletes inside the event's A-final. Senior Henry Lang would drop over 10 seconds in prelims to edge out the 11th-place finisher by less than a second, finishing tenth in finals with his 4:51.34 final time. Carter Dilger was the top finisher for the Colonels in the event, the first-year for the team ending the event at seventh overall for 28 points, hailing a final time of 4:45.46.
 
Centre also found similar success in the men's 200 IM, the freshman duo of Dustin Niebauer and Ben Wafford both finishing among the event's top-seven finishers. Neibauer would push the second-fastest backstroke leg in the event on the way to a fourth-place finish, touching the wall on a 1:56.29 time. Wafford would hit his first sub-two minute time of the season in the event during the finals session, his 1:58.21 time for seventh overall being over six seconds faster than his season-best time before Friday.
 
The Gold and White's strongest event came way of the women's 50 free, the Colonels placing four student-athletes among the top 10, including the top two spots. Former SAA Swimmer of the Week Lee would swim away with her second win on the night in the event, eclipsing the 24-second mark for the first time this season for a :23.92 finish. 2022 NCAA DIII All-American Honorable Mention West would finish right behind Lee for the one-two punch, the sophomore's :24.04 second-place finish touching out the third-place student-athlete by .01 seconds.
 
Kai Oddo would end the first day for the Colonels on a high note, the junior earning his first sub-21 time off a flat start this season in the men's 50 free at finals. Oddo would finish the event fourth overall, touching a :20.94 time that would beat out the fifth-place finisher by .06 seconds.
 
The Colonels still have two more days of the invitational to go, Saturday's events consisting of the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 200 medley relay, 800 free relay, women's 3-meter diving and men's 1-meter diving. Swimming's prelims session is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. ET with diving starting at 1 p.m.
 

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