T&T swimmer, Aqeel Joseph helped his University of Indianapolis Men’s 200 yards freestyle relay quartet to the silver medal in their final meet before the 2021 Great Lakes Valley Conference NCAA Division II Swimming Championships next month.
Swimming the second leg of the dual event against Miami University of Ohio at Oxford, Ohio on Saturday, Joseph clocked 21.49 seconds after Gabriel Knaut had an opening leg of 21.75 while Joao Silva (20.75) and Sebas Rottier (21.15) were the other swimmers for a combined one minute, 24.14 seconds, to trail Miami Ohio’s 1:21.39 minutes.
The third spot in the Dual-Meet went to Miami Ohio as well in a time of 1:24.44.
The silver medal finish by Maloney-resident and former Carifta Games and CCCAN gold medalist Joseph and his team-mates along with three top finishes were among the bright spots on the night as Indianapolis fell to their first meet loss of the season, 159-61, and dropped to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in Conference competition.
Speaking after the meet, their head coach Jason Hite said his swimmers had a great showing.
"We had three objectives; get the minimum required meets to compete at nationals, swim fast, and gain positive momentum moving into the championship season. It's tough to race when the whole family isn't here, but we killed it today.
Hite added, “A school record, several B cuts, and lots of season bests were achieved today. We still have more to fine-tune, but overall we had a great showing to take what is ours."
The Greyhounds who also have two other T&T swimmers, Kael Yorke and Jeron Thompson on their roster will take the next two weeks to make the final preparations for the 2021 GLVC Swimming & Diving Championships.
The four-day championships will kick off on Wednesday, February 10 at the Elkhart Health & Aquatics Center in Elkhart, Indiana, and run until Saturday, February 13.
Ten men's teams and nine women's squads will vie for the 2021 GLVC Championship. Nine GLVC schools currently sponsor both men's and women's swimming and diving, including Drury, Indianapolis, Lewis, Lindenwood, Maryville, McKendree, Missouri-St. Louis, Truman State, and William Jewell. Missouri S&T currently fields a men's squad only.
The University of Indy earned its third-straight men's title last year with a GLVC-record 1,452 points, just 37.5 points ahead of runner-up McKendree (1,414.5). Four-time champion Drury claimed the third spot with 1,299 points, while fourth-place Lindenwood (1,233) had a great showing in its first-ever Conference meet. Missouri S&T rounded out the top-five teams with 1,192.5 points.
After leading wire-to-wire through four days of competition, the Drury women dominated their fourth consecutive and sixth overall league title by beating their 2019 GLVC record (1,012 points) with a new standard of 1,727 points, which was 74 ahead of runner-up UIndy (1,653). Lindenwood (1,599) had a strong showing with a third-place finish in its first-ever league meet, while Truman State (914) claimed fourth and McKendree rounded out the top five with 826 points.
A total of 20 records were broken at the 2020 championship meet among the men’s and women’s races, including 12 on the men’s side.