The University of Hawai’i men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams lead the standings after the third day of competition at the Big West Championships in Houston. The Rainbow Wahine ended Friday with 560 points, while the Rainbow Warriors moved into first place with 512 points.
On the men’s side, three athletes secured individual event titles. Karol Ostrowski won gold in the 100 backstroke with a time of 46.16, marking his second NCAA Championship qualifying performance. Tom Thalau captured the Big West title in the 400 Individual Medley, finishing in 3:47.09—three seconds ahead of his nearest competitor and recording the second-fastest time in school history for that event. Victor Dagenais claimed his first conference title by winning the 200 freestyle in 1:34.77.
During preliminaries, Tom Caps set a new Big West record in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 52.24 before finishing as runner-up in the finals at 53.47. Jack Simon placed fourth in the 100 butterfly, clocking a time of 46.70.
In relay action, Ostrowski, Caps, Simon, and Finn Brophy finished second in the men’s 400 medley relay by just one-hundredth of a second behind Grand Canyon University (3:07.69 to Hawai’i’s 3:07.70). Brophy set a program record for an anchor leg split (100 free) at 41.95 seconds.
For the women’s team, Holly Nelson earned bronze in the 100 fly with a time of 53.46; Carlotta Ingenerf took third place in the 400 IM at 4:16.05; Isabelle Meraz and Mia Blazhevska Eminova finished fourth and fifth respectively in the same race; Brooke Bennett was fourth in the women’s 200 free; Zofia Tyminska placed fourth and Rebekka Luoto fifth in the women’s 100 breaststroke; Aziza Meyer came fifth in the women’s 100 backstroke.
The Rainbow Wahine diving team swept all top five places on Friday’s three-meter springboard event for a second consecutive day. Macie Wheeler repeated her feat from last season by winning both conference diving titles this year—she led with a score of 352.70 on Friday followed by Keira Chandler (308.80), Lovisa Gustavsson (292.15), Ruby Pickron (286.25), and Avery Coates (274.30).
Competition concludes Saturday at Houston’s CRWC Natatorium with preliminary events beginning at 6:00 a.m., Hawai’i Time (10:00 a.m., Central Time), followed by finals starting at 2:00 p.m., HT (6:00 p.m., CT).
Current men’s standings show Hawai’i leading Grand Canyon University by twenty-five points going into Saturday’s final events.
The full list of individual event winners includes Tom Thalau (men’s 400 IM), Victor Dagenais (men’s 200 free), Karol Ostrowski (men’s 100 back), and Macie Wheeler (women’s 3M dive). Notable performances included Finn Brophy setting a new program record for an anchor split during relays.
