KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Four Swimmers are headed to Elkhart, Indiana, to represent Ave Maria in the NAIA Swimming and Diving National Championships. It is the second time in program history any Gyrene has made it to the National Championships. All four swimmers will race in three different events.

Gabby Darakchieva made program history in the Sun Conference Championships a month prior, winning the first gold medal in AMU history in the 100 yard backstroke with a school record breaking time of 57.53 seconds. That time was the seventh fastest in the country this season, making her the seventh seed in the prelims. She is less than half a second behind the second seeded swimmer and has the highest seeding of all four Gyrenes.

Darakchieva will also swim in the 200 yard backstroke and the 50 yard freestyle as the 32^nd and 38^th seed, respectively.

Delaney Weisbruch is the other Lady Gyrene competing in Indiana and has the best average of her three seeds. Weisbruch is the 15^th seed in the 400 yard individual medley and the 17^th seed in both the 200 yard individual medley and the 200 yard butterfly. All three of her qualifying times for those races were personal bests which she set in November in the Small College Championships.

On the men's side, Michael Blawas has the highest ranking for the Gyrenes, coming in as the 10^th seed in the 200 yard butterfly. Blawas swam a personal best 1:51.83 in the Sun Conference Championships which put him in the top 10. His two other events will be the 200 yard freestyle and the 500 yard freestyle, where he is the 31^st and 43^rd seeds, respectively.

Sam Pilkington is the final swimmer headed to Indiana for the Gyrenes. Pilkington's best event is the 100 yard breaststroke, where he is the 13^th seed with a time of 55.85 seconds which he hit in the Small College Championships. Pilkington's other events will be the 200 yard breaststroke and the 50 yard freestyle, where he is the 27^th and 36^th seeds, respectively.

The National Championships get started Wednesday, March 5, at the Elkhart Aquatics Center, with the first preliminaries starting at 2 p.m. The Championships conclude Saturday, March 8. All four days of competition will be streamed live on the NAIA Network in partnership with the Urban Edge Network. The streams are free to watch after registering with the NAIA.