GREENSBORO, NC – The decision to come back for a fifth year paid off in a big way for senior Noah Holstege Wednesday night at the NCAA III Championships.

The fifth-year "super senior" captured the national title in the men's 50 freestyle Wednesday night with a school-record time of 19:48.  Holstege (Keswick, Va./Covenant HS) is the first individual national champion in Calvin men's swimming and diving history.

In addition, he joins Rob Peel of Hope (1987) as the only two MIAA men's national champions in the 50 freestyle.

Holstege led from nearly start-to-finish in the 50 yard sprint, bursting out of the blocks and building his lead at the 25-yard turn. He used a powerful finish over the final 10 yards to win the race by nearly three-tenths of a second to win in comfortable fashion.

Holstege came into the meet as the top seed in the race with a time of 19.51 set earlier in the year. In the morning prelims, he posted the second-best time at 19.73 to advance to the evening finals.

The race helped culminate a decision made in the summer to return for a fifth year, using the additional NCAA III Covid year of eligibility given from the 2020-21 academic year. It also came a year after he finished 19^th in the 50 freestyle at the 2022 NCAA III Championships.

"Last year (Nationals) was a huge bummer. It was not my best swims," said Holstege. "To have a chance to come back and do this tonight means everything. I could not have done it without the support of my family or my teammates so I thank them. Making the decision to come back came down to the coin flip  between going out disappointed or coming back, swimming and giving everything I had. I'm glad I chose to come back because it's worked out really well."

Holstege also contributed to a second All-America swim on Wednesday night as he led off Calvin's 200 medley relay to a fourth place finish in a school-record time of 1:27.09. The relay team of Holstege, freshman Caleb Gemmen (Mentor, Oh./Home School), junior Forrest Peterson (Middleton, Wisc./Middleton HS) and senior Jacob Heeres (Zeeland, Mich./Holland Christian HS).

The relay entered the meet seeded seventh and then took sixth in the morning prelims with a school-record time of 1:28.03.

Calvin head swim coach Dan Gelderloos was delighted with the Wednesday night performance. "It's hard not to come to this meet and try too hard or think you have run through a brick wall to get positive results," said Gelderloos. "We tried to focus on being good at what we already know how to do and trust that it would be enough. The men were on fire tonight. It's hard not to have momentum after winning a national title and to back it up by dropping a second in the relay. It made for a special night."

Earlier in the morning prelims, Heeres placed 20^th in the 50 freestyle (20.30) with Peterson 26^th (20.46), junior Corey Campbell (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian HS) 31^st (20.50) and senior Julien Camy (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian HS) 46^th (20.95).

Calvin's day one performances puts the Knights in sixth place in the team standings with 50 points.

The second day of competition of the four-day meet continues Thursday with prelims set for 10 a.m. and championship finals at 6 p.m.