Huskies earn All-Conference honors on day two at GLIAC

Thursday, February 18

Holland, Mich.

St. Cloud State

GLIAC Championship

Photo by: Kelsey Whaley

2/18/2021 8:58:00 PM | Men's Swim & Dive

| Thursday Results |

HOLLAND, MICH. - The St. Cloud State University men's swim and dive team continued to excel on the second day of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Swimming and Diving Championships in Holland, Michigan. Fueled by All-Conference performances in both the individual and relay races, the Huskies maintained their fourth place standing as a team, as they finished Thursday with a combined two-day score of 206.5 points.

St. Cloud State put together a strong opening in the evening session, as the Huskies carded a second place finish in the 200 yard freestyle relay. The team of Abe Townley (White Bear Lake, Minn. / White Bear Lake), Raf Hendrinks (Berg en Terblijt, Netherlands / Stella Maris College), Nick Gehling (Cedar Falls, Iowa) and Jacob Swier (Parker, Colo. / Chaparral) earned All-Conference honors thanks to their season best time of 1:22.77, which was nearly three seconds faster than their seeded time of 1:25.57. The second place finish additionally earned 34 points towards St. Cloud State's overall team score.

Hendricks' impressive Thursday continued in the 200 freestyle. After clocking the fastest time in prelims in the event, the freshman earned his second All-Conference honor of the night as he finished third with a time of 1:37.79. That time was not only faster than his prelim performance but also broke the school record previously held by Joel Huth.

The Huskies also recorded top-16 performances in the other two events on the evening, the 400 Individual Medley (IM) and the 400 medley relay. Andres Hernandez Garcia (Barcelona, Spain / Escola Ipsi) was the lone St. Cloud State swimmer to score in the 400 IM, as he finished in 12th with a time of 4:09.63, while the team of Hendricks, Jayden Porter (Bismarck, N.D. / Century), Garrett Alleven (Marion, Kansas) and Townley finished fourth in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:21.19.

Thanks to these and several other strong performances, the Huskies ended Thursday in fourth place with a two-day score of 206.5. St. Cloud State will return for day three on Friday, with prelims expected to begin at 9:15 a.m.