The Milwaukee Panthers swim and dive teams participated in the third day of the Horizon League Championships at IU Natatorium in Indianapolis. With one day remaining, the women’s team is currently in second place with 455 points, while the men’s team stands fourth with 295 points.
Sam Lorenz led the Panther men by winning the 100 backstroke and setting both a new program record and a new Horizon League Championships record. His time of 45.81 seconds surpassed Cleveland State’s Philipp Sikatzki’s previous mark from 2016 and earned him an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.
Caleb Carlisle set another program record for Milwaukee by finishing second in the 100 butterfly with a personal-best time of 46.67 seconds. Gunnar Seversen also placed runner-up, improving his own best time by over four seconds in the 400 IM, where he finished less than a second behind Oakland’s winner with a program-best time of 3:49.05.
Andrew Jones took sixth place in the 100 breaststroke, posting his fastest-ever time at 53.89 seconds.
The men recorded their fourth program record of the day during the 400 medley relay. The team—Lorenz, Jones, Carlisle, and Seversen—finished third with a combined time of 3:09.90.
On the women’s side, Maddi Hayashi won the finals portion of the meet’s 100 butterfly event with her best-ever performance at 54.88 seconds.
Gabrielle LePine claimed her second consecutive championship win in the 100 breaststroke, touching first at 1:01.68—over one-and-a-half seconds ahead of her nearest competitor.
Hayashi and LePine teamed up with Mara Freeman and Christiana Brooks to win the women’s 400 medley relay at a time of 3:41.26.
Freeman secured second place (54.51) and Brooks fifth (55.12) in the women’s 100 backstroke; both achieved personal bests.
In other results for Milwaukee women, Erika Thomas was runner-up in the 400 IM (4:23.56), while Natalie DiProspero finished fifth with her career-best effort (4:28.35).
Kristina Wittmann took fifth place in one-meter diving finals after scoring 253.80 points.
The Panthers will conclude their participation on Saturday during day four of competition at IU Natatorium; preliminaries start at 9:00 a.m., available for streaming on ESPN+.
The Milwaukee Panthers Women’s Swimming and Diving Team represents the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as part of NCAA Division I competition within the Horizon League. The team helps student-athletes balance academic responsibilities alongside athletics and contributes to enhancing athletic heritage at their university through seasonal competitions.
