FARGO, N.D. – Led by the tandem of Elizabeth Spaans and Chantal Kasch, who both defended individual titles, the University of Sioux Falls Swimming Team remains in third place at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Swimming and Diving Championships. Competition at the championships will conclude on Saturday, Feb. 13. Prelims will be held at 10 am with the finals starting at 5:30 pm followed by the awards presentation at Hulbert Aquatic Center.

The Cougars, who have finished third in three straight NSIC Championship meets, are again in that position. They have tallied 556.5 points and sit behind St. Cloud State at 591.5 points and team leader Minnesota State at 706. U-Mary is fourth at 366.5 points while Augustana is fifth at 263.5.

"I continue to be impressed by our performance at these championships," said USF Head Coach Chris Hamstra. "We had a number of standout performances led by Lizzy (Spaans) and Chantal (Kasch). Everyone that was in the pool stepped up and our team showed tremendous energy in and out of the pool. I am looking forward to tomorrow," he said.

In a third straight day of impressive performances the Cougars had three total NCAA "B" cuts and had two individual titles, a second-place finish in the 800 free relay and five more individual All-NSIC performances. In total, USF has had 15 All-NSIC performances with a total of 29 student-athletes earning honors as individuals or as part of a relay.

Spaans continued her outstanding performance at the NSIC Championships with an NCAA "B" standard in winning the 100 back and defending her title. Earlier this meet, she had a "B" standard in leading off the 400 medley relay but this time was her season-best in 56.04, which was .40 faster than her prelims time. Spaans now has two individual titles (100 IM) and was part of a winning relay (400 medley) on Wednesday. She was also part of the second place 800 free relay, which clocked a 7:40.17 which was nine seconds better than its seed time. Along with Spaans, the squad included freshman Domenica Solano, freshman Ilinde du Plessis and sophomore Val Childs. USF also took eighth in the relay in 8:00.60 with a team of senior Evelyn VanDeMark, freshman Kaylee Tringali, senior Nina Groene and sophomore Abigail Ford.

Also in the 100 back, the USF freshmen group continued their standout first season. Solano picked up her second runner-up finish by clocking a 57.20 (56.94 prelims) in the finals while du Plessis was eighth in 57.49 while senior Gigi Bario placed 18^th in 59.64, which bettered her prelims clocking of 1:00.15.

Also defending her title was Chantal Kasch, a senior All-American from Stade, Germany, who had an NCAA "B" standard of 1:03.42 in claiming her second straight 100 breast title. Kasch, who had two NCAA "B" cuts in the 100 breast event today, now has a combined seven individual/relay NSIC titles. Also for USF, Burke Henderson was 20th in 1:09.33.

In the 200 fly USF took two of the top three spots. Freshman Paulina Ruelas clocked a 2:07.41 - beating her prelims time by over four seconds. Sophomore Valerie Childs was 3rd in 2:08.18.
In the 500 free, USF had four individuals score points, led by senior Evelyn VanDeMark, who was fifth in 5:09.10, which was four seconds quicker than her prelim time. Nina Groene, 8th; Abby Ford, 13th; and Kaylee Tringali, 17^th also scored points. Each of them swam at least two seconds faster than their prelim time. In eighth place was senior Groene, who clocked a 5:12.63 and four seconds faster than her prelim time followed by Ford who clocked in at 5:16.29 and Kaylee Tringali, who had a 5:27.84 and a time that was five seconds better than her prelims time.

Preview of Saturday - 
Saturday – 100 IM, 100 free, 200 back, 200 breast, 1,650 free, free relay
100 IM – Elizabeth Spaans, 1^st, 1:00.25; Paulina Ruelas, 2^nd, 1:01.49; Domenica Solano, 1:02:01
100 Free – Jenna Krahn, 2^nd, 53.81; Ursula Demarquet, 8^th, 54.67; and Domenica Solano, 13^th, 54.91
200 Back – Elizabeth Spaans, 2^nd, 2:08.15; Ilinde du Plessis, 3^rd, 2:09.07; Domenica Solano, 4^th, 2:11.42
200 Breast – Chantal Kasch, 1^st, 2:24.69; Abigail Ford, 10^th, 2:31.67; and Paulina Ruelas, 12^th, 2:32.52
1,650 Free – None ranked.
400 Free Relay – USF, 1^st 3:35.55