PENSACOLA, Florida – The Ouachita men's swimming & diving team ended up in second place in the final standings of the 2026 New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference while the Tigershark women's team took third.
The Tigersharks combined for 15 podium finishes on Saturday, highlighted by an individual conference championship for
Stefan Duca in the men's 200 backstroke with a NCAA B standard time of 1:45.76.
Duca was joined by four of his teammates on the podium in that race.
Anthony Paculba,
Mikhail Lymar,
Ethan Sparks, and
David Ware took the fifth-eighth place spots. It was Duca's second individual conference championship of the week and third overall including his spot as leadoff on the conference championship men's 800 free relay team.
Other top performances on Saturday included:
- McKenzie Jones finished seventh in the women's 1650 freestyle.
- Tyler Andruss and Caleb Guthrie took second and eighth, respectively, in the men's 1650 freestyle. Andruss clocked an NCAA B standard time of 15:46.23.
- Britta Andruss finished eighth in the women's 100 freestyle.
- Sam Ragsdell, Ian Redman Aguilar, and Vince Pal all made the podium for the men's 100 freestyle. Ragsdell and Redman Aguilar both had NCAA B standard times at 44.45 and 44.90, respectively, for third and fourth place.
- Linzay Taylor finished seventh in the women's 200 backstroke.
- Justin Oulette and Lucas Cagle took second and third, respectively, in the men's 200 breaststroke.
- Ouachita's 4x100 men's relay team of Stefan Duca, James Savarese, Ian Redman Aguilar, and Sam Ragsdell turned in the fastest time of 2:56.80, which is an NCAA nationals qualifying time. Their performance on Saturday was considered an exhibition.
Final men's standings for the week include Henderson State at No. 1 (1,056), Ouachita at No. 2 (1,029.50), and Delta State at No. 3 (875.50). The women's standings ended up with the host West Florida at No. 1 (1,239), Delta State at No. 2 (916), Ouachita at No. 3 (536), and Henderson State at No. 4 (476).
The Tigersharks have multiple swimmers with high chances of being selected for the NCAA Division II National Championships. Those selections will be announced next week.
