KNOXVILLE, TENNESSE – The University of the Incarnate Word men won the 2014 Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) Swimming and Diving Championships on Saturday at University of Tennessee's Allan Jones Aquatic Center.  They became the first UIW program to win an NCAA Division I conference team title. (Results)

The Cardinals were neck and neck with UMBC throughout the entire four days of competition.  On Saturday, the two teams stood tied for first place with just the 200-yard butterfly and 400-yard freestyle relay events remaining.

UIW came through in the 200-yard butterfly with five swimmers earning points.  Evandro Silva (Gauruja, Brazil/Colegio do Carmo) won the race in 1:47.21 setting a meet record and eclipsing the NCAA Division I 'B' cut.  David Moore (San Antonio/Marshall HS) was right behind in second place in a time of 1:47.61 and Kaulen Applin (Houston/MacArthur HS) took third.  Jorge Escarcega (El Paso/Cathedral HS) was fifth and Robbie Morris (Helotes/O'Connor HS) took 12^th to give the Cardinals a 48-point lead.

They closed out the meet with a second place finish in the 400-yard freestyle in a school record time of 2:56.63.

"I am very proud of our young men and women," said head coach Phillip Davis.  "I am especially proud of this senior class and how they led the program.  I would not trade my coaching staff from anything.  They all put a lot on the line to us to where we are today."

The Cardinals opened the scoring on Saturday with a win, meet record and conference record by Connor Hennessy (San Antonio/Business Careers HS) in the 1650-yard freestyle.  He touched the wall in 15:33.69.

The wins continued for the Cardinals in the 200-yard backstroke with Andrii Nikishenko (Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine) setting a school, meet and conference record with a time of 1:43.94.  Then Thiago Parravicini (Rio de Janiero, Brazil/C.E.L.) broke all three records in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:54.67.  Rostik Fedyna (Kiev, Ukraine) backed up Parravicini with a second place finish in the same event.  Alex Brouwer (Scottsdale, AZ/Notre Dame Prep) added a runner-up finish in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.86.

Overall, the Cardinals set 11 meet records and nine CCSA all-time records at the championship meet.
After UIW and UMBC, Davidson took third place with 632.5 points and they were followed by Gardner-Webb (473), New Jersey Institute of Technology (211.5), VMI (172) and Howard (90).
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