Southwestern Men Lead After Day One of 2015 SCAC Swimming & Diving Championships

ROCKWALL, Texas -- fter posting a first place finish in the 200 medley relay and a second place finish in the 800 free relay, the Southwestern University men jumped out to quick lead on the opening day of the 2015 SCAC Swimming & Diving Championships. Official Website | Wednesday's Complete Results | Team Scores | Video Recap

At the completion of Wednesday's session, the Southwestern men have 134 points, followed by Colorado College with 120 points and defending champion Trinity University with 112 points. Centenary College is fourth with 86 points, Austin College is fifth with 72 points and McMurry University - competing in its inaugural SCAC championship meet - is sixth with 56 points.

The 200 medley relay team of Michael Glover, Mickey Scharbrough, Shelby Hall and Simmon Belaineh finished in a time of 1:33.56 - which tied for the fifth-fastest time in SCAC meet history. The win marked just the second team relay victory in conference meet history for the Southwestern program.

Trinity University was actually the first team to touch the pad in the event, but the Tigers were DQ'ed for an early exchange. Centenary College assumed second place in the 200 medley relay a time of 1:34.81 and Colorado College placed third with a finishing time of 1:37.00.

Trinity's Stephen Culberson, Spencer Adickes, Gordon Allan and Andrew Thiesse completed the evening's session with a first-place finish in the 800 freestyle relay with a time of 6:49.35 - good for the fourth-fastest finish in SCAC meet history and a NCAA 'B' cut. Southwestern finished second (6:54.85) and Colorado College came in third (7:04.53).

Men's 1-meter diving was also completed Wednesday evening with Colorado College's Austin Howlett earning his third-consecutive title in the event. Howlett dominated the event with a school and conference record score of 562.45, which was also a NCAA qualifying standard. Howlett's score shattered the previous conference record of 515.25, which was established by Kevin Martin of Trinity in 2011. Nicholas Van Bemmelen of Trinity placed second with a score of 298.45 and Parker Adams of Austin College was third with a score of 228.65 - the highest-ever finish by an Austin College diver in the event.

Competition continues on Thursday with preliminaris beginning at 10:30 a.m., women's 1-meter diving at 1:30 p.m. and finals at 6:30 p.m. Click here for the complete schedule of events.