BIRMINGHAM – After a four-day conference championships meet that was spontaneously rescheduled to five days, the Centre swimming & diving teams completed their events at the 2022 Southern Athletic Association Swimming & Diving Championships on Sunday. Among the three postseason honors that the team accumulated, the Centre women's team ended the meet in third place with 596.5 points and the men finished fourth overall with 592 points.
 
Centre concluded the meet as a new threat on the women's side, snagging three of the four possible SAA Championship meet awards. Callie West showcased a dominant performance, the freshman claiming both Newcomer and Swimmer of the Year honors after the final events concluded. Head coach Dean Brownley earned some recognition among the coaches as well, earning an SAA Coach of the Year honor for the eleventh time as a Colonel. 
 
"It's almost like they find a way to dial in that much more with a little adversity," praises coach Brownley after the meet, "The change in schedule for the [SAA Championship] meet was an advantage to us. I am very proud of this group and how they never took their eyes off why we were here."
 
The Colonels arguably had their best day on Sunday morning, crowning SAA champions in five events in the session alone. The women's 100 free was the highest total for Centre, in terms of points, the Colonels taking two of the top three spots overall in the event. Callie West was the top finisher in the event, her :51.57 final time points to be the fastest swim in Centre history in the event, also garnering an NCAA B-cut standard in the event as well. Elise Burch ended her individual SAA campaign with a medal of her own in the same event, claiming third place overall on a :52.27. Her finals time was a vast improvement from her solid prelim time yesterday, dropping .93 seconds between the two days.
 
Centre would crown back-to-back SAA champions later in the meet, the first being senior Bryan Killian. Killian slammed down a B-cut in the event in both the prelim and final sessions of the meet, his winning time a 2:04.7. The Jellico, Tenn. native out-touching the second-place finisher by almost a quarter of a second. Audrey Becker would also showcase her dominance as a veteran in the SAA, claiming the women's 200 fly as her first individual SAA title of the meet. Earning All-SAA First Team honors now for three seasons in a row, the junior won the event by almost two seconds, touching the wall on a 2:07.53 time.
 
The final event that the Colonels claimed was the women's 400 free relay, completing the feat of winning all three freestyle relays in the meet. The squad of Burch, Greer Manger, Peyton Patel and West teamed up for a 3:29.81 swim, outdoing the field by about a second and a half. The team's performance ended at around a 10-second improvement from their original seed time.
 
In addition to the five gold medals the team earned, there were a handful of other medals that Centre garnered on the fifth day. Jackson Fears finished an impressive freshman campaign with a silver medal in the men's 200 fly, his performance in the meet setting the new program record in the event. Fears' final session ended on a 1:52.62 time, pushing past the bronze medal recipient by 1.2 seconds. 
 
The Gold and White had plenty of other great swims to go around through the unconventional day five, including a fourth-place finish from Kai Oddo in the men's 100 free. Kai Oddo's :46.25 time is not only a .32-second improvement from his prelim swim on Saturday night, but also a four and a half second drop from his :50.77 time in the Centre First Chance meet in February of last year. The men's 400 free relay also placed fourth overall in the respected event on Sunday morning, the team finishing on a final time of 3:08.21 overall. That team consisted of Henry Lang, Fears, Killian and Kai Oddo.
 
Although the session kicked off on Sunday morning, the teams started swimming the 1650 free the night prior, everyone but the top eight entries swimming on Saturday night. Manger was the top finisher for the Gold and White in the women's mile, her 18:23.16 time pushing up up to sixth place overall in the timed final. The men featured a handful of sixth-place finishers to boost their point total overall, including senior Sean Gilpatrick in the 200 breast with his 2:21.78 time and junior Austen Reid with his 1:59.46 finish in the 200 fly. 
 
UP NEXT
With several NCAA B-cuts across the two teams, time will tell if any student-athletes will represent the Colonels at the upcoming 2022 NCAA DIII Swimming & Diving Championships in Indianapolis, Ind. Qualifier lists are usually announced around the beginning of March two weeks prior to the meet, this year's national championships being held from March 16 – 19 in IUPUI's IU Nataroium.
 
A complete list of All-SAA honors can be found at the end of this recap.

DAY FOUR (Saturday)
After two finals sessions and 17 All-SAA honors for the Centre swimming & diving teams, the Colonels were back in action on Saturday for a revised day for that added 11 more awards across five events. With one more finals session to go at the 2022 SAA Swimming & Diving Championships, the men currently sit at fourth place as a team with 419 points and the women rank fifth with 408.5 points.
 
Audrey Becker kicked the session off for the Gold and White with a medal of her own, swimming into the third-place spot in the women's 400 IM. Becker's 4:37.84 time was an improvement to her prelim swim yesterday by .4 seconds and her second All-SAA selection in the meet. Her freshman teammate, Callie West, continued her tear on the SAA Championships, claiming another individual title. Her :55.64 time in the women's 100 fly did numerous things, including breaking the SAA and Centre records and earning an NCAA DIII B-cut time standard in the event. West's Saturday win now totals four All-SAA First Team honors overall, two from individual events and two from relays.
 
Freshman counterpart Jackson Fears made his name known for the future in the SAA, finishing fourth overall in the men's 100 fly. His :50.98 time not only was a .08 second time improvement to his prelim time on Friday, but was also the highest placing non-senior student-athlete among the conference. A pair of Colonels would make their way into the women's 200 free top eight, Elise Burch and Greer Manger finishing fourth and, respectively. The former touched the wall on a 1:56.46 time, while the later's 1:57.15 time actually tied for the fifth-place podium spot.
 
Junior Henry Lang made his mark in the men's side of the 200 free, dropping an entire second from his prelim time of 1:44.39 to a 1:43.38. His final swim ranked him fourth overall, jumping two spots where his prelim time would have placed him. His upperclassmen teammate, Bryan Killian, would also finish fourth overall in the men's 100 breast, his :57.98 time edging the fifth-place finalist by .08 seconds. Zee Oddo was also among the top eight finishers in the event, his finishing eighth in the finals session with his 1:00.36 time.
 
Connor Foster would also join the senior collage that appeared in the finals session on Saturday night, her 1:00.43 time in the women's 100 back earning her fifth overall. Kai Oddo would soon later put himself back on the podium as an individual, splitting the second-fastest opening 50 yard split to finish second overall in the men's 100 back. The sophomore's silver medal performance was swum on a :50.97 time, almost a whole second faster than the third-place finisher in the event. 
 
The Colonel 400 medley relays ended the finals session for Centre, the women starting things off with a third-place, 3:57.13 time. Foster, Manger, West and Burch all jumped back in the pool for the relay, the team dropping about five and a half seconds from their entry time prior to the meet's start. The men were able to climb their way up to the second-place podium spot, the squad of Kai Oddo, Killian, Fears and Lang all getting a second swim on Saturday that amounted to 34 Centre points. The team's final time of 3:25.72 was over a five second drop from their entry time, passing up the third place finisher by over two seconds.
 
The Colonels set themselves up for more success in Sunday's final session of the SAA Championships, including a pair of great prelim swims in the women's 100 free. Burch placed herself back in the top eight of the event by dropping almost three seconds from her entry time, seeded fourth on a :53.3 time. West leads the event for the Gold and White in the prelim session, the freshman's :52.02 time seeded first overall and only .09 seconds from tying the Centre program mark. Kai Oddo will look to add another individual medal to his collection as well, finishing the men's 100 free as the fourth place seed on a time of :46.57. 
 
The Colonels found several student-athletes in the top eight of the 200 breast, one for the women and two for the men. Maddie Hall led all Centre student-athletes with a 2:29.18 time for the women, her five second time drop placing her sixth overall in the event. Sean Gilpatrick was the first of the two men to qualify for the final on Sunday morning, his 2:11.19 performance outpacing the ninth-place B-final participant by over five seconds. Killian looks for an individual SAA title to his name, dropping a whole five seconds from his entry time to earn an NCAA B-cut from his 2:04.46 swim. The senior's finish was only a half-second behind the No. 1 seed in the event. 
 
Killian won't be the only one chasing an SAA title on Sunday, Becker stepping back up on the blocks for the women's 200 fly, an event the junior has dominated in. Her 2:08.07 prelim swim was not only over a second a half drop from her seed time, but also remains as the only student-athlete in the event to finish in a sub-2:10 time. Despite the upperclassmen mentioned prior looking for gold, freshman Fears will eye to end his individual events with a medal in the men's 200 fly. Dropping two seconds to his 1:51.85 prelims time, the new Centre program record is only one second away from an NCAA B-cut standard.
 
The final session of the 2022 Southern Athletic Association Swimming & Diving Championships will kick off at 11 a.m. ET. The session will also include the meet's awards, such as the High Point, Diver and Newcomer of the meet.

DAY 3 (FRIDAY)
With the discombobulated schedule and severe weather scare behind them, the Centre Colonel swimming & diving teams were back in action on Friday with an uncharacteristic finals session in the morning and prelims session in the evening. What wasn't uncharacteristic though was plethora of high-level performances between the teams. Through event 14, the women sit at 244 points overall for third and then men rest at fourth place with 244 points overall. 
 
The Colonels were able to place student-athletes on All-SAA teams in five different events on Friday, three of those events coming from the women and two from the men. The Gold and White solidified two finals sessions in a row where the team punched another event to nationals potentially in a month, this time being the women's 200 free relay. The squad of Elise Burch, Greer Manger, Peyton Patel and Callie West swam a 1:35.23 time that accomplished a handful of feats for the program, including a first-place podium finish, a broken record for both the conference as well as the team and an NCAA qualifying time to potentially send the relay to NCAA's.
 
West didn't end it there on Friday, also claiming fame in the women's 50 free just an event prior to the relay mentioned above. The freshman made it her third first-place finish out of three swims so far, outdoing the field by a half second. West's time of :23.62 also broke the SAA record on top of that, as well as earning a B-cut standard for the NCAA Championships.
 
Audrey Becker placed herself on the podium for the first time this championship in the women's 200 IM, the junior dropping a second a half from her prelim swim on Thursday to finish second overall in the event for All-SAA honors. Becker's 2:09.49 swim featured a strong finish among the field, holding the fastest final 50 split in the freestyle leg of the race out of the top six finishers in the event.
 
Kai Oddo led the way for the men's team on Friday, the sophomore breaking way in the 50 free for his second podium finish of the meet, first as an individual. The Lexington, Ky.-native dropped .36 seconds in the event from his seed time to prelims last night, then another .22 seconds from Thursday prelims to Friday finals to touch second place overall on a :20.93 time. Oddo's race marks the first time since the 2010-11 season that a Colonel managed a sub-21 second 50 free on a flat start, his time also .05 seconds away from the school record.
 
Kaden Gervacio jumped back on the board for Centre on Friday night, competing in the men's three-meter diving event to try and become All-SAA on both boards. The senior dual student-athlete would do just that, scoring 326.05 points in the event to finish third overall in the conference. Gervacio's total would edge out the fourth-place finisher by 43.45 points.
 
The Gold and White featured several other races in the evening that weren't podium finishes, including junior Elise Burch's fourth-place finish in the women's 50 free. Burch's :24.27 time was a .26 drop from her entry time. Connor Foster also was included among the fourth-place finishers for the Colonels, dropping almost two seconds from her prelim time to jump from the eighth seed to fourth place overall on a 2:12.30 finish in the women's 200 IM. Other top-eight finishers included Greer Manger (5:15.45, fifth) and Savannah Gupton (5:16.38, seventh) in the women's 500 free. Gupton's finish was a lifetime best time for the senior.
 
In the Friday night prelims session, Centre paved the way with another great set of swims for the upcoming finals session on Saturday morning. Audrey Becker will eye an SAA title in the women's 400 IM (seeded second overall) while Sean Gilpatrick accomplished reading the top eight in the men's 400 IM for four years in a row. Callie West looks to add another individual title to her trophy case in the women's 100 fly, currently seeded first with a :56.10 time swam in the prelim session, also to note as a new program record in the event and an NCAA B-cut. Jackson Fears will look to add his name to the All-SAA list, sitting at fifth overall in the men's 100 fly with a :51.06 time. Fears' swim in .17 seconds from the third-seed. 
 
Burch will have her eyes at the top on Saturday morning, the Louisville-native dropping over nine seconds from her entry time to finish prelims second overall in the women's 200 free on her 1:54.52 swim. The Colonels earned a pair of student-athletes in the men's 100 breast, the senior duo of Bryan Killian (:57.04, second) and Zee Oddo (:59.29, sixth) both looking for high finishes in their final SAA 100 breast race, both swimming personal best times in the Friday evening session. Killian's prelim time not only was a personal best, but the Jellico, Tenn. native dropped almost two seconds from his entry time and shattered his own program record by .32 seconds. Kai Oddo dropped over a second and a half in the men's 100 back, his :50.86 time seeding second place and also eyeing the Centre record from 2015 (.16 seconds from tying the mark).
 
Reminder that the Saturday morning session will consist of Friday's finals in correlation to the original event schedule. The morning session will kick off at 11 a.m. ET and include the men's and women's 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, 400 medley relay and women's three-meter diving. The Saturday evening session will start at 7 p.m. ET, consisting of the prelims races for the men's and women's 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast and 200 fly.

DAY 2 (THURSDAY)
In what the Colonels swam in Thursday's prelims session before the rest of the day got postponed, both the men's and women's teams featured several season and personal best times that finished within the league's top eight. Centre found five entries within the list of event's top eight finishes.
 
The women's 50 free was dominated by the Gold and White on day two's morning session, Centre snagging two of the top three spots in the event. Callie West found herself on top of the event, posting the fastest time in the conference of :23.81 heading into Friday's finals session. Elise Burch was able to break through the pact as well in the prelims session, the junior posting a :24.20 time for the third-place seed, almost a second a half off her seed time going into the event.
 
Centre also showcased a pair of women finishing as the runner-up heading into finals, sophomore Greer Manger finishing second in the women's 500 free. Her almost five-second time drop led her to a 5:13.63 time, just under one second ahead of the third-place finisher. Junior Audrey Becker was the other Colonel to reach a second-place prelims spot in the morning session, touching the wall at a 2:11.01 time in the women's 200 IM. Becker is the reigning women's 200 IM SAA champion, so she'll be looking to repeat that title Friday night.
 
The Gold and White also featured some student-athletes on the men's side in the third-place spot, one in a prelim and the other in a final. Kaden Gervacio now becomes a three-time All-SAA Honorable Mention in diving, earning a third-place finish on the men's one-meter board Wednesday night. Gervacio's 11-dive set totaled out to 355 points exactly, around a 44-point improvement to his total score in this event at last year's championships. Kai Oddo was the final Colonel to place himself in a top-three finish in Thursday's morning session, the sophomore dropping .36 seconds to slam a final time of :21.15 in the men's 50 free. Oddo's prelim time is .27 seconds off of the men's program record in the event.

DAY 1 (WEDNESDAY)
After traveling almost six hours south from Centre's campus in Kentucky, the Colonel swimming & diving teams kicked off the first session of the 2022 Southern Athletic Association Swimming & Diving Championships on Wednesday night. In a performance that included their first qualification to the national championship meet in March, the women currently sit as the third-place team with 91 points and the men rank fourth in the conference with 82 points.
 
The most thrilling performance came from the longest race of the day, the women's 800 free relay. The Gold and White shined above the rest with a 7:39.25 time, dropping over 20 seconds from their seed time heading into the event. The team of Elise Burch, Savannah Gupton, Greer Manger and Callie West achieved even more historical marks in that race, beating the entire field to become SAA champions in the event alongside a qualifying time to the 2022 NCAA DIII Swimming & Diving Championships by .05 seconds. West's anchor split of 1:51.62 was the fastest in the event by almost two seconds, including the only first-50 split to be under 25 seconds (:24.98).
 
The men were able to find themselves on the podium as well on Wednesday night, earning a third-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The squad of Kai Oddo, Bryan Killian, Jackson Fears and Zee Oddo's All-SAA Honorable Mention time of 1:33.92 ended up as a second and a half drop from their entry time. Kai Oddo's lead-off split in the 50 back timed out to be :23.53, a time that bodes well for the sophomore as it was the fastest in the conference's top-eight relays.
 
The Colonels dropped time in their other two races on day one, as Henry Lang, Zolon Knoll, Sean Gilpatrick and Fears finishing their men's 800 free relay on a 7:04.91 time, almost a seven-second time drop. The women also placed fourth in the 200 medley relay, their 1:49.51 time swam by Connor Foster, Maddie Hall, Audrey Becker and Peyton Patel, almost a full-second time drop.
 
The only other event to kick off was the men's one-meter springboard, the only diving event and individual event of the night. Although they competed, the officials are not including the event in the results until Thursday morning. Come back to centreathletics.com tomorrow to see how your Colonels performed in day two!
 
Day two's events on Thursday will include the 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 free and women's one-meter diving. There may also be exhibition races of the 200 free relay in Thursday's prelims, to be determined in the coaches meeting. Day two's prelims will kick off at 11 a.m. ET, with finals starting competition at 7 p.m. ET. 
 
Below is a running list of all the All-SAA honorees:
 
All-SAA First Team
Audrey Becker (200 fly)
Elise Burch (800 free relay*, 200 free relay*, 400 free relay)
Savannah Gupton (800 free relay*)
Bryan Killian (200 breast*)
Greer Manger (800 free relay*, 200 free relay*, 400 free relay)
Peyton Patel (200 free relay*, 400 free relay)
Callie West (800 free relay*, 50 free*, 200 free relay*, 100 fly*, 100 free*, 400 free relay)
 
All-SAA Second Team
Audrey Becker (200 IM)
Jackson Fears (400 medley relay, 200 fly)
Henry Lang (400 medley relay)
Bryan Killian (400 medley relay)
Kai Oddo (100 back, 400 medley relay)

All-SAA Honorable Mention
Audrey Becker (400 IM)
Elise Burch (400 medley relay, 100 free)
Jackson Fears (200 medley relay)
Connor Foster (400 medley relay)
Kaden Gervacio (one-meter, three-meter diving)
Bryan Killian (200 medley relay)
Greer Manger (400 medley relay)
Kai Oddo (200 medley relay, 50 free)
Zee Oddo (200 medley relay)
Callie West (400 medley relay)
 
* denotes an NCAA B-cut time standard
 

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