OXFORD, Ohio – University of Evansville junior Alon Baer (Gesher HaZiv, Israel) made history on Saturday, as he became Evansville's first-ever individual Mid-American Conference champion in swimming by winning the 200-Yard Breaststroke in a school-record time of 1:56.16.  It came as part of a day where UE broke a school record eight different times on the final day of the 2023 MAC Championships.

"This has been a great week, and I am extremely proud of these guys," said UE head coach Stuart Wilson "They have elevated this program to another level!

"We still have one more week at the National Invitational Championships for both the men and the women.  But, this has been a very special week!"

Baer had to rally in the final 100 yards to catch the MAC 100-Yard Breaststroke champion, Joey Garberick of Ball State, to win the 200 Breast title.  But, Baer was three seconds faster than Garberick over the final 100 Yards to pull away and win by over 1.53 seconds.  Baer's time of 1:56.16 is an NCAA 'B-Cut' time, and it was his second school-record performance of the day in the event, as he posted the day's top preliminary time of 1:57.41 on Saturday morning.

Junior Jackson Caudill (Mt. Sterling, Ky./Montgomery County) also posted a podium finish on Saturday, as he finished third overall in the 1,650-Yard Freestyle with a school-record time of 15:39.12. 

Senior Riccardo Di Domenico (Johannesburg, South Africa) broke the 100-Yard Freestyle record twice on Saturday, with the first coming in the main final with a time of 44.56 and the second coming as the lead leg of the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay team, where he clocked in with a 100-Yard split of 44.44.  It marks the third time this year in which Di Domenico has broken the 100 Free record.  Prior to this season, the mark had not been touched at UE since February, 1999.

Di Domenico's efforts in the 400 Free Relay helped the quartet of him and sophomores Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain), Benjamin Hasanovic (Innsbruck, Austria), and Jakob Grundbacher (Thalwil, Switzerland) break the school record in a time of 2:59.11.

Sophomore Patrik Vilbergsson (Kopavogur, Iceland) also topped a record that had stood for over 20 years at UE twice on Saturday, as he posted times of 1:47.38 and 1:47.28 to finish sixth overall in the 200-Yard Backstroke.  The previous record in the event was set in 2001 by UE Hall of Famer Dave Nel with a mark of 1:48.93.

In all, Evansville either broke or tied a school record 21 different times during the four-day MAC Championships.  Prior to this weekend, four records had stood for over 20 years at UE.  Those four marks have all been topped this week, and the oldest UE record now is from 2018. 

Evansville will now have just a few days off before sending a group of men and women to the CSCAA National Invitational Championships in Elkhart, Indiana, beginning on Wednesday.