Columbus, Ga. – The third day of the 2022 NAIA Men’s Swimming & Diving Championship saw its first national record of the meet broken as Keiser (Fla.) remains atop the team standings Friday night at the Columbus Aquatic Center. 

• In the first individual event of the night, Milligan’s (Tenn.) Stephen Gilbert broke the NAIA national record en route to winning the 400 IM.  The sophomore touched the wall in 3:51.08 to win the race by three seconds and break the NAIA record of 3:51.02 set by Keiser’s Pol Roch at the 2020 championship. 
• Keiser recorded four national titles and a pair of runner-up finishes on the day to have 506 points.   The Seahawks opened finals winning the 200 medley relay by almost two seconds.   Alberto Garcia won the 100 fly with a time of 47.51, while Emerson Zaplatar touched the wall in 53.38 to take top honors in the 100 breast.  Gergo Zachar closed out the night with the 100 back national title as he clocked a time of 48.82.  The Seahawks tallied runner-up finishes in the 400 IM and the 100 fly. 
• Joel Thatcher of SCAD-Savannah (Ga.) captured the last national title of the night as he dropped over a second off his prelims time to win the 200 free by over three seconds.  It marks his second national title of the meet and has helped the Bees climb to second place with 261 points.
• Cumberlands (Ky.) sits in third place with 235 points as Ruben Gonzalez de Oliveira tallied a runner-up finish in the 200 free. 
• Milligan (Tenn.) and St. Thomas (Fla.) round out the top-five with 223 and 218.5 points, respectively. 

The NAIA Championship will continue Saturday, March 5, with the final day of competition. Prelims are slated to begin at 9 a.m. EST and finals will start at 5 p.m. EST.

Live video of the championship can be found on the NAIA Network HERE.