Men's Swimming and Diving | 2/20/2026 10:04:00 PM
Brown Deer, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse men's swimming & diving team leads after the third day of competition at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championships (presented by Culver's) Friday night at the Walter Schroeder Aquatic Center.
The Eagles have 597.0 team points with UW-Eau Claire second with 562.0. UW-Stevens Point is third with 473.0 followed by UW-Whitewater fourth with 328.0 and UW-Oshkosh fifth with 228.0.
Preston Nygaard became the first swimmer for UWL to win the 100 breaststroke since Matt Diehl in 2010 with a school record time of 54.57 on Friday. Nygaard broke his own school record of 54.75 set in Friday's preliminaries.
UWL captured the 200 freestyle relay with a first-place time of 1:21.51. The relay of
Tyler Hartmann,
Jesse Hammes, Nygaard and
Jacob Ketterling won the title as the Eagles took the event for the fourth straight season. Hammes was on the first-place relay last year while Hartmann won the title in 2024 and 2025.
Hartmann was fourth (56.19) and
Ben Collins eighth (59.57) in the 100 breaststroke Friday while
Gabe DeWald was ninth (58.08).
The Eagles'
Jonah Elfers placed second (50.33) in the 100 butterfly while
Isaac Mozena was fourth (50.99) and
Sean Gillett seventh (51.33).
Caleb Jondle was second (4:08.67),
Davin Evans fourth (4:09.81) and
Gabe DeWald fifth (4:11.67) in the 400 I.M.
Ketterling finished second (50.33) in the Friday's 100 backstroke with
Coby Zander fourth (52.06), Gillett sixth (52.86) and Hammes eighth (54.54). Elfers placed ninth (52.68).
In Friday's 200 freestyle, Collins placed fifth (1:44.99),
Gavin LaBeau sixth (1:45.47) and Zander ninth (1:45.26).
In the one-meter diving competition,
Aanav Patel finished sixth (382.20 points) while Ethan Pederson eighth (363.40) and
Luke Zocher 11th (277.40).
Action concludes Saturday, February 21 with preliminaries at 10 a.m. and finals at 5:45 p.m.
