Swim­ming and Div­ing Name All-Amer­i­cans

MISHAWAKA—Af­ter a dis­ap­point­ing end to their 2020-21 sea­son, the men’s and wom­en’s swim­ming and div­ing teams got some good news this past week. Nor­mally, the All-Amer­i­can awards are given af­ter the na­tional tour­na­ment to those who per­formed ex­cep­tion­ally well dur­ing the event. The NAIA, how­ever, de­cided to name those who de­served the recog­ni­tion of the All-Amer­i­can award based on their sta­tus for ei­ther an au­to­matic bid or their times that would have put them in the na­tional tour­na­ment.  

“When we found out that the NAIA na­tional meet was can­celed, we were very dis­ap­pointed,” Coach Deb­o­rah Thomp­son said. “I knew we had sev­eral ath­letes that would have per­formed well. It was the right thing to do for the NAIA of­fi­cials to award All-Amer­i­can hon­ors. I'm very proud of our team.” 

The Pi­lots had four men and six women named All-Amer­i­cans. 

On the men’s side, the four All-Amer­i­cans are the first ever in pro­gram his­tory. Those named as All-Amer­i­cans were Lo­gan Berndt, Caleb Berrong, Dy­lan De­long and Ean Er­ling. Berndt set records in four events in­clud­ing the 50 Free, 100 Free, 200 Free, and the 100 Fly. All his times would have qual­i­fied him for the na­tional tour­na­ment. For Berrong, he set five records in the 100 Back, 100 Breast, 200 Breast, 200 IM (In­di­vid­ual Med­ley) and the 400 IM. Not only would he have qual­i­fied in those events, but also the 100 Free. De­long was rec­og­nized as an All-Amer­i­can for his time in the 1650 Free. Lastly, Er­ling set three records in the 500 Free, 1000 Free and the 1650 Free. He would have qual­i­fied for the 500 Free and the 1650 Free.  

The wom­en’s side saw six All-Amer­i­cans be named. Those in­cluded Abi­gail Barnes, Sarah Hyska, Vivi­enne Kun­kler, Emma Mc­Clel­land, Paula Ronda Bou and Elis­a­beth Wolfe. Barnes, set two pro­gram records in the 100 Back and the 200 Back, qual­i­fy­ing in both events. Hyska set a 50 Free time that would have seen her qual­ify. Kun­kler set a record in the 200 Breast and would have also qual­i­fied for the 100 Breast. Mc­Clel­land set times in the 200 Brest and the 400 IM to qual­ify. Ronda Bou set three records: the 200 Fly, the 200 IM and the 400 IM. Lastly, Wolfe be­came the most dec­o­rated swim­mer in pro­gram his­tory, be­ing named an All-Amer­i­can in back-to-back years and set­ting three records in the 50 Free, 200 Free and the 100 Fly, as well as a time good enough to qual­ify for the na­tional tour­na­ment in the 100 Free. 

“I am ex­tremely pleased to see so many of our swim­mers be­ing rec­og­nized and hon­ored in only our sec­ond year,” Thomp­son said. “Go­ing into next year we are only go­ing to be los­ing one swim­mer. So, it will be great to be able to con­tinue this mo­men­tum into next sea­son!” 

For more in­for­ma­tion on the Men’s and Wom­en’s Swim­ming and Div­ing teams, visit www.bupi­lots.com.