SWIM/DIVE CHAMPIONSHIPS BEGIN WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, February 19

Iowa City, Iowa

10 a.m./6 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Summit League Championships

Swim Teaser 2-17-25 (Denilson Cyprianos, Jenna Currier)

2/17/2025 4:30:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

SUMMIT LEAGUE SWIMMING AND DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS

When	Wednesday-Saturday, Feb. 19-22 12:30/6 p.m. Wednesday 10 a.m. Prelims/6 p.m. Finals Thursday-Saturday
Where	Campus Recreation and Wellness Center \| Iowa City, Iowa
Live Video	Summit League Network (subscription required)
Results	Meet Mobile Women's Season Performance List \| Men's Season Performance List
Meet Notes	Summit League Championship Page
Social Media	Twitter \| Instagram

Postseason competition for South Dakota State's winter sports teams gets into full swing this week as the Jackrabbits head to Iowa City, Iowa, for the 2025 Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships.

The four-day meet runs from Wednesday through Saturday at the Campus Recreation and Wellness Center located on the University of Iowa campus. SDSU is one of seven schools competing in both the men's and women's divisions.

Competition begins at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, with the evening session starting at 6 p.m. The other three days will consist of morning prelims starting at 10 a.m., followed by event finals at 6 p.m.

The meet will be available for viewing through the Summit League Network streaming platform (subscription required). Live results will be posted on the Meet Mobile app.

Denver is the defending champion in both divisions.

THE SCHEDULE: Following is the event schedule for the 2025 Summit League Swimming and Diving Championships:

Wednesday, Feb. 19 Sessions: 12:30 p.m./6 p.m.	Thursday, Feb. 20 Sessions: 10 a.m./6 p.m.	Friday, Feb. 21 Sessions: 10 a.m./6 p.m.	Saturday, Feb. 22 Sessions: 10 a.m./6 p.m.
Team Diving Event (M)	Team Diving Event (W)	100 Butterfly (W/M)	1,650 Freestyle (W/M)
200 Medley Relay (W/M)	500 Freestyle (W/M)	400 Ind. Medley (W/M)	200 Backstroke (W/M)
1-Meter Diving (W)	200 Ind. Medley (W/M)	200 Freestyle (W/M)	100 Freestyle (W/M)
800 Freestyle Relay (W/M)	50 Freestyle (W/M)	100 Breaststroke (W/M)	200 Breaststroke (W/M)
	1-Meter Diving (M)	100 Backstroke (W/M)	200 Butterfly (W/M)
	200 Freestyle Relay (W/M)	3-Meter Diving (W)	3-Meter Diving (M)
		400 Medley Relay (W/M)	400 Freestyle Relay (W/M)

HIGH MARKS: Heading into the Summit League Championships, 13 Jackrabbits hold top-eight individual times or marks in various individual swimming and diving events. Sophomore Cody Vertin leads the SDSU with three top-eight seedings, while Gigi Hioki and freshman Emma Ingalls each turned in a pair of top-eight times in events to be contested at the league meet.

Denilson Cyprianos and freshman Nik Keuser each have clocked the second-fastest times among Summit League competitors in the 200-yard backstroke (1:45.01) and 100 breaststroke (:55.06), respectively, to lead the SDSU men. Jenna Currier has turned in the third-fastest time in the 100 butterfly (:55.41) so far this season to pace the Jackrabbit women's squad in swimming, while Anna Mei Castro ranks second in 3-meter diving with a top score of 282.00.

Men

Aiden Carstensen – 100-yard backstroke, seventh, :48.72
Denilson Cyprianos – 200 backstroke, second, 1:45.01
Jack Ellison – 400 individual medley, fifth, 3:57.55
Sam Johnson – 200 freestyle, third, 1:38.48; 500 freestyle, fifth, 4:29.95
Nik Keuser – 100 breaststroke, second, :55.06; 200 breaststroke, fourth, 2:01.39
Braxton McGrath – 100 butterfly, third, :48.15; 200 butterfly, second, 1:49.36
Austin Smith – 200 butterfly, sixth, 1:50.13; 200 individual medley, third, 1:48.88
Cody Vertin – 200 breaststroke, third, 2:01.21; 200 individual medley, fifth, 1:49.59; 400 individual medley, 3:57.01

Women

Marissa Branham – 200 breaststroke, seventh, 2:20.44
Anna Mei Castro – 3-meter diving, second, 282.00
Jenna Currier – 100 butterfly, third, :55.41
Gigi Hioki – 100 freestyle, eighth, :51.33; 200 freestyle, eighth, 1:50.70
Emma Ingalls – 200 butterfly, seventh, 2:05.13; 400 individual medley, eighth, 4:28.54

ALL-LEAGUE PERFORMERS RETURN: A total of seven returning Jackrabbit swimmers — six men and one woman — have previously earned all-Summit League honors based on top-three performances either individually or as a member of a relay team.

Men

Aiden Carstensen – 100 backstroke (2023)
Denilson Cyprianos – 200 backstroke (2023); 200 backstroke, 800 freestyle relay (2024)
Jack Ellison – 1,650 freestyle (2024)
Sam Johnson — 200 freestyle, 800 freestyle relay (2022); 200 freestyle, 800 freestyle relay (2024)
Charles Sieglaff — 200 medley relay (2021); 200 freestyle relay (2022)
Austin Smith — 100 individual medley, 800 freestyle relay (2022); 100 IM (2023); 800 freestyle relay (2024)

Women

Emma (Bachelder) Schultz — 200 freestyle relay, 400 freestyle relay, 800 freestyle relay (2021); 200 freestyle relay (2022)

SCHOOL RECORDS FALL: Four members of the South Dakota State men's swimming and diving team have set new school records during the 2024-25 season.

Three of the records were broken during competition at the Tommie Invitational Nov. 21-23 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Senior Sam Johnson was the first to clock a record time, posting a mark of 4 minutes, 29.95 seconds in the finals of the 200-yard freestyle on the opening day of the meet. That bettered the mark of 4:30.74 set last season by teammate Jack Ellison.

Two more records fell the following day with Braxton McGrath and Cody Vertin doing the honors. A junior from Amana, Iowa, McGrath broke his own record in the 100-yard butterfly twice on the same day. In the Nov. 22 morning prelims, he clocked a then-record time of 48.51 seconds to lower his own standard by .07 seconds. During the evening finals, McGrath trimmed another .36 seconds off his earlier mark for a winning time of 48.15 seconds.

Vertin, a sophomore from Brookings, turned in his record-setting performance in the 400 individual medley during the morning preliminaries with a top time of 3 minutes, 57.01 seconds. He fell slightly off that pace during the evening's final, but still managed to win the event in 3:57.40.

The final school record to fall was in the 100 breaststroke with freshman Nik Keuser doing the honors in the regular season finale Feb. 1 at the Coyote Invite in Sioux Falls. An Omaha native, Keuser clocked a winning and SDSU-record time of 55.06 seconds, eclipsing the previous record of 55.11 seconds set by Wyatt Rumrill in 2019.

Keuser also ran away with the 200 breaststroke title at the Coyote Invite as his nearest competitor was nearly seven seconds behind his winning time of 2 minutes, 1.39 seconds. That mark also put Keuser in the No. 3 spot in the event in program history.

NEW POOL RECORDS: The Jackrabbit men's and women's squads have combined to establish seven new facility records at the Stanley J. Marshall Center Pool during the 2024-25 season. Five of the new standards have been set in relays — four by the men and one by the women's squad:

Men's 200 Medley Relay – 1:33.29 by Aiden Carstensen, Nik Keuser, Austin Smith and Liam Murray vs. Iowa Central (Nov. 15, 2024);
Men's 400 Medley Relay – 3:25.63 by Aiden Carstensen, Cody Vertin, Braxton McGrath and Sam Johnson, vs. Omaha (Dec. 6, 2024);
Men's 400 Freestyle Relay – 3:05.90 by Denilson Cyprianos, Aiden Carstensen, Sam Johnson and Zavier Kranz, vs. South Dakota (Jan. 18, 2025);
Men's 800 Freestyle Relay – 6:58.05 by Kolden Kringen, Denilson Cyprianos, Zavier Kranz and Sam Johnson, vs. Iowa Central (Nov. 15, 2024);
Women's 800 Freestyle Relay – 7:45.24 by Gigi Hioki, Hannah Miller, Sara Juez and Emma Schultz, vs. Iowa Central (Nov. 15, 2024).

Sam Johnson set the first individual pool record this season with a 200-yard freestyle time of 1 minute, 41.81 seconds in the Nov. 15 dual versus Iowa Central. Cody Vertin followed with a new standard in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:06.17 Jan. 17 against St. Cloud State.

CASTRO SETS NCAA ZONE MARK: Jackrabbit women's diver Anna Mei Castro established an NCAA Zones-qualifying mark with a winning score of 282.00 points on the 3-meter board en route to winning the event at the Tommie Invitational Nov. 22 in St. Paul, Minnesota.

A sophomore from Barcelona, Spain, Castro bettered the qualifying standard by two points. The Zone D diving meet is set for March 10-12 in Iowa City, Iowa.

PRESEASON POLLS: The South Dakota State men's swimming and diving team has been picked to finish second in the 2024-25 Summit League standings and the women's squad has been tabbed to place third in preseason polls announced in early October.

The Jackrabbit men totaled 31 points to finish behind defending champion Denver with 36 points and six first-place votes. South Dakota received the other first-place vote and placed third in the poll, which was conducted among the league's seven head coaches.

SDSU finished fourth in the league standings a season ago.

In the women's division, SDSU collected 26 points to stand behind Denver (36 points) and South Dakota (31 points). The defending champion Pioneers received six first-place votes to take the top spot, with USD gaining the other first-place vote.

The Jackrabbits placed fifth out of eight teams at last season's league championships.

Four Jackrabbits were named swimmers and divers to watch for the upcoming season. Representing the SDSU men were Denilson Cyprianos and Reece Reid, while Gigi Hioki and Anna Mei Castro were nominated on the women's side.

Cyprianos, a graduate student from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, is the school record holder in the 200-yard backstroke (1:44.03) and was runner-up in the event at the 2024 Summit League Championships. He also recorded sixth-place individual finishes in the 200 and 500 freestyle events at the league meet.

Cyprianos went on to represent his home country in the 200-meter backstroke at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

Reid, a sophomore from Keller, Texas, placed 17^th in 3-meter diving at the 2024 Summit League Championships.

A sophomore from Liberty Lake, Washington, Hioki excelled in the freestyle events for the Jackrabbit women last season, placing seventh in both the 200 and 1,650 freestyle at the league championships.

Castro, a sophomore from Barcelona, Spain, recorded a ninth-place finish in 1-meter diving at the 2024 Summit League Championships and added a 15^th-place effort on the 3-meter board.

COACH HUMPHREY: Doug Humphrey is in his eighth season as head coach of the South Dakota State men's and women's swimming and diving teams.

Through his first seven seasons, Humphrey has guided the Jackrabbits to top-three team finishes at the Summit League Championships five times in the men's division and three times on the women's side. Both squads recorded runner-up finishes at the league meet during the pandemic-altered 2020-21 season.

Prior to SDSU, Humphrey served as the head women's swimming and diving coach at Northern Iowa for five seasons. His Panther squads showed steady progression in the Missouri Valley Conference, including posting back-to-back third-place finishes at the conference championship his final two seasons in Cedar Falls.

Humphrey served as the assistant swimming coach at the University of Nebraska from 2000-12 under Olympic gold medalist Pablo Morales. He swam for the Huskers from 1991-96 and later served as a graduate assistant coach at his alma mater.

A LOOK AHEAD: Postseason competition continues with the NCAA Zone D diving meet March 10-12 in Iowa City, Iowa. In addition, a contingent of Jackrabbit swimmers is slated to compete March 13-15 at the National Invitational Championships in Ocala, Florida.

-GoJacks.com-