ELKHART, Ind.—The University of Evansville men's swimming team broke the school's oldest relay record on Thursday night, as the Purple Aces had a strong showing on the first day at the CSCAA National Invitational Championships in Elkhart, Indiana.

The UE quartet of senior Oskar Menkhaus (Davidson, N.C./William A. Hough), junior Riccardo Di Domenico (Johannesburg, South Africa), and freshmen Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain) and Jakob Grundbacher (Long Beach, Calif.) teamed up to break the school record in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay with a time of 1:21.63 to place 10th out of 27 scoring teams at the NIC meet.  The time broke a more than 21-year-old school record in the 200-yard Freestyle Relay, previously held by Scott Hobson, Darko Kermiciev and UE Hall of Fame swimmers Dave Nel and Nikola Kalabic.  It marked the 14^th time in the last two weeks in which the UE men have broken a school record, and overall, both the UE men and women have broken school records 25 different times this year.

"I thought that the swimmers did a great job today, especially on the relays, as they really raced their hearts out," said UE head swimming coach Stuart Wilson.  "It's not always easy to come back after a big championship meet a few weeks back and still be competitive against top-flight competition.  But, we were able to do that today, and I was really proud of the effort.

"I thought that Iryna (Tsesiul) did a great job this morning and improved her standings in the finals, and I am really proud of her.  All in all, our swimmers looked like they were having fun, and that is huge right now."

Evansville was also able to score points in the men's 400-yard Medley Relay, as UE placed 11th overall with a time of 3:16.22 to edge teams from West Virginia and Virginia Tech.  UE sophomore Iryna Tsesiul (Minsk, Belarus) also scored five points in the women's 50-yard backstroke, as she qualified for the consolation finals in a field of 53 swimmers and placed 16th overall with a finals time of 25.89.  Santos Lopez has a strong showing in the men's 50-yard Butterfly event, placing 22nd overall with a time of 22.36.

The CSCAA National Invitational Championships are college swimming's equivalent to the NIT in basketball, and currently features athletes from over 56 schools, including many "Power Five" schools.  The UE men currently find themselves in 13th place after the first day of competition, while the UE women are in 33rd.   The meet will continue on Friday at 8:30 a.m. central time with preliminary swims in the 400-yard IM, the 100-yard Butterfly, the 200-yard Freestyle, the 100-yard Breaststroke and Backstroke, and the 800-yard Freestyle Relay.  The finals for all of those individual events, as well as the 200-yard Medley Relay will take place Friday night at 5:00 p.m.