Swimming Finishes Third At NAIA National Championships

Propelled by four individual national championships and a strong team showing, the Brenau swim team finished third at the 2015 NAIA Swimming and Diving National Championships in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma this past weekend.

The Golden Tigers amassed 439 points during the championships, narrowly missing second place by 42 points. Host and defending national champions Oklahoma Baptist University led with 745 points, while SCAD-Savannah earned 481 points. Concordia Nazarene-Irvine (Calif.) and University of Cumberlands (Ky) rounded out the top five.

Courtney Hayward (SO/Townsville, AUS) continued her outstanding performance on Saturday as the sophomore captured her third national title by winning the 1650 freestyle in 16:58.36. Teammate Ella Kleinschmidt (FR/Hervey Bay, Queensland AUS) added to the team score with a fifth place finish in 17:49.20.

In the 200 yard backstroke, Talia Sola, who earned a national title in the 100 backstroke on Saturday, narrowly missed a second title by .07 seconds to Ines Remersaro of Oklahoma Baptist.

Mary Katherine Jabbia (JR/Slidell, La.) took second place in the 200 breaststroke to earn All-American honors in 2:24.29, while the 400 freestyle relay team of Shelby Rumker (SR/Douglas, Ga.), Alisha Hodgetts (FR/Perth, AUS), Michelle Billeaud (SR/Lafayette, La.) and Hayward finished in fourth place with a time of 3:31.44.

This was the second consecutive top-five national championships finish for the Golden Tigers and head coach Blaire Bachman and the highest finish in team history.