SIOUX FALLS – South Dakota men's and women's swimming and diving teams made history Saturday evening at the conclusion of the Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships.
 
The Coyote men wrapped up their second consecutive team runner-up finish for the first time in the school's Summit League history while the women also posted a runner-up team finish, the first time in school history.
 
The four-day championships held at Midco Aquatic Center were also capped by individual honors to Sarah Schank and Isaac Morris, honored as the Diving Championship MVP in their respective divisions while South Dakota diving coach Kris Jorgensen was named women's diving Coach of the Year.
 
The final day of competition saw the Coyotes swim to three school records, another individual lowered his school record time while six individuals and one relay team earned all-conference honors.
 
"It's very rewarding," coach Jason Mahowald said. "I think that goes to show all the work the kids did all year. They worked their butts off. Runner-up on both side is the best we could have asked for, especially with as dominant as Denver is. So we're very happy with that."
 
Denver tallied 1,183 points on the women's side to secure its sixth straight league title while the Coyote women scored 676 points, a school Summit League high. The Pioneers accumulated 1,074.5 points to win their sixth straight men's title while South Dakota was second with 686.5 points.
 
"Big improvements," said Mahowald. "First time in program history we have been runner-up. We have come a long way.
 
"Big shout out to Kris (Jorgensen) diving coach of the year on the women's side. Sarah diving MVP, that's amazing, I'm real happy for both of them."
 
Cassie Ketterling set a new school record in the 100 IM with her 58.72 clocking in the finals where she finished fourth. Jake Leichner set a school record for the second time during the meet when he clocked 50.96 in the finals of the 100 IM to finish as the Summit League runner-up.
 
The other school record on Saturday came from the women's 400 free relay quartet of Sabrina Sabadeanu, Meghan Atwell, Ketterling and Katie Coleman who finished third in 3:27.65.
 
James Ryan, one of just two individual swimmers for the Coyotes to earn all-conference honors in two events along with Sabadeanu, lowered his school record time in the 200 breaststroke to 2:00.69 in the morning prelims. Ryan would come back and finish third in the finals in 2:00.77.
 
The men's team produced five additional adjustments to the Coyote top 10 list on Saturday.
 
Jared Thorson, a senior, swam to a 51.97 clocking in the 100 IM and now sits third in school history. Tanner Espersen moved up to sixth in the 200 backstroke with a 1:53.59 while Charlie Bean is also sixth now in the 100 free with a 45.62 effort. Caden DeLay moved into fifth in the 200 breaststroke with a 2:04.54 and Mark Vanderzee moved up to seventh in the 1650 free with a 16:12.66 personal best clocking to earn all-conference honors with a third-place finish. Elbert Chuang lowered his personal best in the 200 breaststroke to 2:02.86, which sits fourth in school history.
 
"They did even a little bit better overall performance as last year," said Mahowald of the men's team. "I don't think the point total is as much as last year, the teams below us sucked up a lot more points this year than they did last year. So an even better performance this year than it was last year."
 
The women's team saw three new entries into the school's top 10 list along with two others that moved up the charts.
 
Isabelle Davenport moved up to third in the 100 IM with a 59.55 clocking in the prelims while senior Morgan Holt moved into 10^th in the 100 IM with a 1:01.17 from the morning prelims. Maddie Lavin, a freshman like Davenport, swam to a 2:07.53 clocking in the prelims of the 200 fly to move up to fourth on the school's top 10 list. Kristen Quigley posted a 2:04.60 in the finals of the 200 backstroke and now sits eighth in school history. Leah Drengenberg swam a 17:40.17 in the 1650 free to move into ninth on the school's top 10 list.
 
In total for the meet the Coyotes had 14 individual events earn all-conference honors and eight relay units, four men and four women.
 
"I think it's a great experience just from our stand point, from the coaches standpoint is the number of freshmen we have," said Mahowald. "They were just as strong on day four as they were on day one. That's good news moving forward with that group of kids for sure."