DAY ONE RESULTS

HOLLAND, Mich. – The Calvin men's swimming and diving team had a record-breaking opening night of competition at the MIAA Championships to build an early first place lead.

Fueled by a record-setting 800 freestyle relay team, Calvin bumped its day one total up to 58 points, 10 points ahead of Hope.

Calvin took first place in the consolation final and then set an MIAA and Calvin record in the championship final.

Calvin's B' relay of senior Julien Camy (Grand Rapids, Mich./Grand Rapids Christian HS), freshman Ryan Halberg (Novi, Mich./Northville HS), sophomore Jacob Ziegler (Toledo, Oh./St. John's Jesuit HS) and junior Jack Kulaga (Downers Grove, Il./Downers Grove South HS) cruised to a win in the consolation final in a time of 6:46.39 to earn 18 points. Camy led off the relay with an impressive opening 200 split of 1:39.99.

The championship final turned into a heavyweight bout between the A' squads from Calvin and Hope. The lead changed hands throughout the relay but the Calvin quartet of junior David Bajwa (Bethesda, Md./The Heights School), graduate student Eric Chimes (Broadview Heights, Oh./Brecksville-Broadview HS), junior Josh Seidelman (Northville, Mich./Northville HS) and sophomore Charles Platt (Downers Grove, Il./Downers Grove North HS) came up with the win in a Calvin and MIAA-record time of 6:37.94. The time broke the previous Calvin and MIAA record of 6:38.29 set by Calvin in 2022. The time is also a strong NCAA B' cut qualifying time and ranks Calvin 10^th nationally.

Bajwa took the relay out in an opening split of 1:39.89 with Platt coming from behind in the final 50 of his 200 split, moving past Hope and charging to the wall for the win. Platt's final split was an impressive 1:37.66 with the Knights finishing more than two seconds ahead of Hope's A' relay.

In addition, Calvin had a strong night in the prelims of the men's one-meter diving competition with junior Wil Goodpaster (Hamilton, Mich./Hamilton HS) claiming the top score of the 11-dive competition with 433.95 points and junior Jason Perez (Plainwell, Mich./Plainwell HS) placing third with 411.05 points as both Calvin divers advanced to Thursday's final.

COACHES COMMENT: "Our B' relay had a ton of 'newbies' in there and they all came out strong with best times across the board," said Calvin head swim coach Dan Gelderloos. "With the A' relay, hat's off first to Hope for a great swim and pushing us. David had a great opening split and our next two guys held strong and then Charles came up big. He just knows how to swim the relay well. He has that extra gear at the end. Super proud of that relay. I'm also very pleased with our divers tonight. They came up big and put us in a good position for tomorrow."

NEXT UP: Competition continues Thursday with prelims at 10 a.m. and championship finals set to begin at 5 p.m.