Men's Swim/Dive Sets Two School Records During Day 1 of MIAA Championships

Pictured, senior Ewan Tiongson

The Hope College men's swimming and diving team opened the 2024 MIAA Championships by setting two school records.

The second- and fourth-place swims during Day 1 of the four-day meet at the Holland Aquatic Center propelled the Flying Dutchmen to second place in the overall standings.

Hope has 48 points after the competition on Wednesday. No. 7-ranked Calvin leads the six-team event with 58 points. Alma College is in third with 40 points and followed by Kalamazoo College (32), The University of Olivet (28) and Albion College (12).

Day 2 features two sessions: 10 a.m. for preliminaries and 5 p.m. for finals.

Hope's top relay of senior Ben Catton (Holland, Michigan / Holland Christian HS), sophomore Henry Booker (Hudsonville, Michigan / Hudsonville), fifth-year senior Bailey Smith (Battle Creek, Michigan / Lakeview) and junior Conner Halberg (Novi, Michigan / Northville) finished runner-up with a school-record time of 6:40.12.

The relay eclipsed the previous top mark of 6:42.17 set by Bailey Smith, Daniel Clyde, Gabe Boonstra and Daniel Keith in 2020.

Catton's split of 1:38.91 set a Hope 200 freestyle record as well. He passed the previous record of 1:38.94 set by Halberg in 2022.

Calvin won the race with a meet-record time of 6:37.94. The Knights' other scoring relay placed third.

The Flying Dutchmen's relay of sophomore Bishop Carl (Cincinnati, Ohio / Sycamore), freshman Graham Eisenmann (Ozark, Montana / Ozark), freshman Alex Pierce (Oswego, Illinois / Oswego) and junior Connor Watkins (Buckeye, Arizona / Horizon) recorded a fourth-place swim of 6:48.85.

In 1-meter diving, senior Ewan Tiongson (Portage, Michigan / Portage Northern) sits fourth out of seven entrants after preliminaries with a total of 428.35 points. Calvin's Will Goodpaster leads with 433.95 points.

Senior Joey Gillengerten (East Lansing, Michigan / Haslett High School) is in fifth place with 319.75 points.

Sophomore Justin Romero (Detroit, Michigan / Woodhaven) is sixth with 306.55 points.

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