CARBONDALE, Ill. – For the third-straight day, University of Evansville junior swimmer Daniel Santos Lopez (Madrid, Spain) broke a school record on Friday, this time in the 100-Yard Butterfly event, as the Purple Aces had a strong third day at the 2024 Mid-American Conference Swimming & Diving Championships in Carbondale, Illinois.

After helping UE break the 200-Yard Medley Record on Wednesday and breaking the 50-Yard Freestyle record on Thursday, Santos Lopez rewrote his own record in the 100 Fly with a preliminary round time of 47.88 to advance to Friday's A Final.  He would go on to place eighth overall in the MAC with a finals time of 48.05, and he was one of eight different Purple Aces who advanced to the final round on Friday.

Joining Santos Lopez in an A Final on Friday night were junior Patrik Vilbergsson (Kopavogur, Iceland) in the 100-Yard Backstroke and sophomore Daniil Goncharuk (Kyiv, Ukraine) in the 100-Yard Breaststroke.  Vilbergsson would place eighth in the 100 Back with a finals time of 49.08, while Goncharuk would also place eighth in the 100 Breast with a finals time of 54.89.  Goncharuk earned the finals berth in the A Final after posting a P.R. time of 54.73 in the preliminary round, which ranks him as the second-fastest UE male in the event in school history.

Vilbergsson was joined in the 100-Yard Backstroke finals on Friday by freshman Boris Tavrovsky (Jerusalem, Israel), who became the fourth-fastest UE male in the event in the prelims with a time of 49.61, before posting a B Final time of 49.88 to place 16th overall in the MAC.  Meanwhile, Goncharuk was joined in the 100-Yard Breaststroke finals by junior Carlos Souto (A Coruna, Spain), who placed 13th overall in the MAC with a finals time of 55.27.  He moved into third place on UE's career chart earlier in the day by posting a preliminary round time of 54.92.

Freshman Omar Hassan (Doha, Qatar) also competed on Friday night in the event finals, as he placed 15th overall in the 400-Yard IM with a time of 4:00.17.  Hassan nearly became just the second UE male to break the four-minute barrier in the 400 IM with his finals time.  Fellow freshman Joseph Capo (Luling, La./Jesuit) also advanced to Friday's B Final in the 200-Yard Freestyle, where he placed 13th overall with a time of 1:40.18.  That time ranks Capo as the sixth-fastest male in UE history in the event.

On the diving boards, sophomore Levi McKinney (Boonville, Ind./Boonville) had a strong showing in the preliminary round of the men's three-meter diving competition.  McKinney placed eighth overall in prelims with a score of 280.95 to advance to Saturday's A Final in the event.

Evansville nearly broke another school record to cap the evening on Friday, as UE fell just 0.11 seconds shy of the school record in the 200-Yard Freestyle Relay, as the Purple Aces posted a time of 1:21.40 to place fifth overall.

Overall, Evansville ranks sixth as a team heading into Saturday's final day of competition.  Miami of Ohio currently holds a 29-point lead over Missouri State in the team standings.

The 2024 MAC Swimming & Diving Championships conclude on Saturday with preliminary round action beginning at 10:30 a.m. and final-round action beginning at 6 p.m.  Saturday's event list includes action in the 200-Yard Backstroke, the 100-Yard Freestyle, the 200-Yard Breaststroke, the 200-Yard Butterfly, the 1,650-Yard Freestyle, the main final of the men's three-meter diving competition, and the 400-Yard Freestyle Relay.