Warriors Place First at Home Invitational

FREMONT, Neb. — Midland University returned to the Dillon Family Aquatic Center this week for its biggest regular-season meet of the year, hosting three men's teams at the three-day Warrior Invitational. The Warriors edged Iowa Western Community College by seven points, 1,103–1,096, to take home first place. Iowa Lakes Community College finished third with 202 points.

Iowa Western earned 12 first-place finishes while Midland had six, but the Warriors' 10 second-place and eight third-place finishes closed the gap and pushed them ahead.

Radek Ruzicka was Midland's standout performer, earning two individual titles. He won the 100-yard breaststroke with a personal-best time of 57.83 and followed with a victory in the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:09.89.

Nacho Molina was the Warriors' next-highest scorer. He won the 50-yard freestyle in 21.34 and added two third-place finishes with personal bests in the 100- and 200-yard freestyle at 47.20 and 1:45.52, respectively.

Martin Sener added another individual gold, winning the 200-yard backstroke in 1:50.80. He also placed second in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:49.31. The Warriors' final individual champion was Artur Arent, who won the 1,650-yard freestyle in 16:39.60 before taking second in the 400-yard individual medley at 4:15.48.

Midland competed in all five relay races, winning the 400-yard medley relay and finishing second in the other four. In the medley relay, Recce Gray led off with a 52.06 backstroke leg. Ruzicka followed with a 57.84 breaststroke split, and Tichatonga Makaya posted a 51.81 in the butterfly. Molina anchored in 45.89, touching the wall 0.21 seconds ahead of Iowa Western's A relay to seal Midland's final event win.

The Warriors will take more than a month off for the holidays before returning to the Dillon Family Aquatic Center on Jan. 24 to host a dual against Iowa Western.