Poleena Kovalaske won the 50 free Horizon League title to highlight Day 2 at the conference championship meet.  Felix Lafortune, in 1-meter diving, and Ashton Amerman, in the 500 free, also had podium finishes for the Flames.


Kovalaske backed up her top seed coming out of the prelims with a championship-winning time of 23.33 in the 50 free finals.  She out-touched IUPUI's Cayle Hamilton by one-one hundredth of a second.  It culminated a year-by-year progression, as she finished third in the event as a freshman and second last year as a sophomore.

Kovalaske is just UIC's second ever women's 50 freestyle champion.  The Flames have not had a winner in the event since 2008, when Andrea Giczewski claimed the title.


Later in the evening, Kovalaske led off the 200 free relay.  She finished her 50-yard leg in 23.17 seconds, beating her own school record by 0.01.


Lafortune came in second by just one-tenth of a point.  He scored 319.05 in the final round after posting a meet-high 326.30 in the prelims.  It was his fourth straight podium finish in the event after winning the championship in 2020 to go along with two third-place finishes.


Amerman placed third in the 500 free.  She finished in 4:58.22, after just making the cut as the eighth-place swimmer in the prelims.  It was her first career podium finish at conference.

The Flames' women ended the day in fourth place at the meet's halfway point.  The UIC men stood in fifth. 

A-Final Results

• Victoria Thor was sixth in the 500 free.
• Jan Komorowski finished fourth in the 500 free, less than half a second off the podium.  He shaved over 2.5 seconds off his time in the prelims, getting home in 4:26.46.
• Taira Juronis and Lilly Culp finished consecutively, taking fourth and fifth places in the 200 IM.

B-Final Results

• Christina Neri and Maddie Hawker both swam in the 500 free consolation.  They finished 10^th and 13^th, respectively.
• Ben Ramminger qualified for the B-final in the 500 free.
• Daniel Galinski made the 200 IM B-final in his first conference appearance.
• Lizzie Zeller won the 50 free B-final in a career best 23.66 seconds.  Bree Moericke also scored points in the 50 free, also in a personal-best time.
• Jeff Wiedoff came in 11^th overall in the 50 free.
• Cole Tremewan had the top score in the 1-meter B-final.  His final round total of 289.05 would have been good for a top-five finish, but after scoring just 266.50 in the prelims, he was seeded into the consolation round.
• Hunter Trautmann improved his score on the 1-meter board from 235.50 in the prelims to 244.30 in the consolation final.

Relays

• Just one relay – the 200 free – was contested Thursday night.  UIC's women, consisting of Kovalaske, Kalie Landrum, Moericke, and Zeller, came in third.
• Wiedoff, Josh Dellorto, Cory Michalek, and Jan Komorowski turned in a fourth place finish in the 200 free relay.