SAN ANTONIO, Texas (November 24, 2025) – This weekend, The University of Texas Permian Basin men's and women's swim teams competed in the Trinity Tiger Invitational at the Alamo Heights Natatorium in San Antonio, Texas. In the end, the UTPB men's team finished second out of nine teams with while the women were third out of nine.

This was the Falcons' midseason meet, where they get to take on various teams in different divisions and conferences. The other competing teams in addition to the Falcons and Tigers were the University of Incarnate Word, Loyola, Saint Thomas, Southwestern, Adams State, McMurray, and Austin College. It was the Falcons' first big chance to suit up and practice racing the way they will at conference.

On the men's side, the hosts from Trinity, who are ranked No. 19 in NCAA Division III, finished first with 1,130.50 points, followed by UTPB (857.50) in second and Loyola New Orleans (460), which is ranked No. 10 in the NAIA, in third. On the women's side, No. 20-ranked Trinity was first with 1,329.50 points, Southwestern University (707.50) was second, UTPB (457) was third, and No. 22-ranked Loyola New Orleans (254) was fourth.

UTPB Head Swimming Coach Brian Schroeder said, "The team as a whole had an amazing meet. We pushed each other to new heights and celebrated accomplishments across the board. We have momentum into the winter training with sights on conference championships in February."

In all, there were 60 personal/lifetime best swims for UTPB at this meet. The men's team set 32 personal bests and 36 season bests while the women's team set 28 personal bests and 18 season bests. In addition, two school records were broken in the men's 400 medley relay and the men's 200 backstroke.

In the men's meet, Colin Doyle was the high-point leader among all athletes with 68 points, one first-place finish and six-second place finishes while Niklas Heelein was second with 61 points, three second-place finishes and two third-place finishes.
 

Tiger Invitational Day 1 – Friday, November 21
Head Coach Brian Schroeder and the Falcons came into the meet with the mindset of breaking records, and they got off to a hot start on Friday night.

On the first day of competition, UTPB's "A" team consisting of Nico Turner, Sean Greene, Doyle and Heelein broke the school record in the men's 400 medley relay with a time of 3:20.73, dropping 5.62 seconds off their seed time. The group finished second in the event, behind only Trinity's "A" team with a time of 3:20.09. The original record of 3:22.44 was originally set by Gustavo Damis Resende, Jakub Murici, Nikita Naumov and Jeremy Pantalion in 2018.

In all, three UTPB teams finished among the top-six in the men's 400 medley relay, closing out the first night of competition.

At the start of the night, it was clear the UTPB women were an improved team from last year as they improved their finished in the 200 freestyle relay from eighth place to third place, and improved their time (1:39.53) by over five seconds. In the men's 200 freestyle relay, UTPB took both second and third place. The UTPB "A" team (Doyle, Logan Fultz, Heelein, Kell Frazier) finished second with a time of 1:23.09 and the UTPB "B" team (Turner, Cooper Workman, Chase Alderman, Brannan Espericueta) finished third at 1:25.01.

In the women's 200 IM, sophomore Rowan McWhorter finished in fourth place with a time of 2:10.95 after finishing in fifth place in the event as a freshman last year. She improved her time from last year by 0.86 seconds. In the men's 200 IM, UTPB took three of the top-seven places. Greene (1:52.50) tied for second place as a freshman, Owen Putnam (1:54.19) finished fifth after taking sixth place last year, and Alderman (1:56.51) remained in seventh place for the second year in a row.

The UTPB men had three of the top-four finishers in the 50 freestyle. Despite winning the event last year and improving his time from last year by 0.14 seconds, Doyle (20.80) finished in second place this year after finishing in first place in the prelims at 20.96 seconds. In addition, Frazier (20.89) and Fultz (20.89) tied each other for third place.

At the end of day one, the UTPB men (300.50 points) sat in second place behind only the hosts from Trinity (418.50 points). The UTPB women (151 points) started off in third behind Trinity (496 points) and Southwestern (274.50 points).
 
Friday's Top-Eight Relays & Individual A Finalists:
Women's 200 freestyle relay – third place – UTPB "A" team (Rowan McWhorter, Mackenzie Gingerich, Avery Momotiuk, Ava McCormack) – 1:39.53
Men's 200 freestyle relay – second place – UTPB "A" team (Colin Doyle, Logan Fultz, Niklas Heelein, Kell Frazier) – 1:23.09
Men's 200 freestyle relay – third place – UTPB "B" team (Nico Turner, Cooper Workman, Chase Alderman, Brannan Espericueta) – 1:25.01
Men's 500 freestyle – fourth place – Niklas Heelein – 4:39.54
Women's 200 IM – fourth place – Rowan McWhorter – 2:10.95
Women's 200 IM – sixth place – Avery Momotiuk – 2:13.24
Men's 200 IM – tied for second place – Sean Greene – 1:52.50
Men's 200 IM – fifth place – Owen Putnam – 1:54.19
Men's 200 IM – seventh place – Chase Alderman – 1:56.51
Men's 50 freestyle – second place – Colin Doyle – 20.80
Men's 50 freestyle – tied for third place – Kell Frazier – 20.89
Men's 50 freestyle – tied for third place – Logan Fultz – 20.89
Women's 400 medley relay – third place – UTPB "A" team (Ava McCormack, Avery Momotiuk, Rowan McWhorter, Nadia Phelps) – 4:01.99
Men's 400 medley relay – second place – UTPB "A" team (Nico Turner, Sean Greene, Colin Doyle, Niklas Heelein) – 3:20.73
Men's 400 medley relay – fourth place – UTPB "B" team (Zane Garner, Chase Alderman, Tommy Betancour, Kell Frazier) – 3:26.77
Men's 400 medley relay – sixth place – UTPB "C" team (Cooper Workman, Brannan Espericueta, Owen Putnam, Logan Fultz) – 3:28.12
 

Tiger Invitational Day 2 – Saturday, November 22
The first event of the evening saw the UTPB women's 200 freestyle relay team "A" team (Ava McCormack, Avery Momotiuk, McWhorter, Mackenzie Gingerich) take second place with a time of 1:48.44. On the men's side, UTPB finished back-to-back in second and third place in a relay for the second time on the meet. Zane Garner, Greene, Doyle and Fultz were second with a time of 1:31.64 and Turner, Alderman, Tommy Betancour and Frazier were third at 1:32.46. It was exactly a two-second improvement over last year's time for the UTPB men's "A" team while the "B" team improved by over four seconds and moved all the way up from seventh place to third place.

In the women's 100 butterfly, McCormack finished third with a time of 59.06 seconds while McWhorter was fifth at 59.93 seconds. After finishing first in the prelims (49.34) for the second time during the meet, this time, Doyle won the men's 100 butterfly with a time of 49.49 seconds, improving his time from last year by 0.44 seconds to move up from a third-place finish a year ago.

Greene (1:40.34) and Heelein (1:41.17) finished back-to-back in second and third place in the men's 200 freestyle, switching their places from the prelims.

In the women's 100 breaststroke, McWhorter (1:07.25) improved by 0.55 seconds from last year, moving up from a sixth-place finish a year ago to third place this year, while Momotiuk (1:07.90) was right behind her in fourth place. In the men's race, Alderman (57.21) remained in sixth place, but improved his time by over a full second.

In one of its best races of the meet, the UTPB men's team had four of the top-five finishers in the 100 backstroke. Turner led the way in second place with a time of 50.36 seconds and was followed by Garner (50.77) in third, Workman (50.78) in fourth and Doyle (51.23) in fifth. Garner also improved his time by 1.40 seconds from a year ago.

At the end of day two, the UTPB men (585.50 points) remained in second place behind Trinity (780.50 points) while the UTPB women (320 points) also remained in third place behind Trinity (972.50 points) and Southwestern (477.50 points).

Coach Schroeder said after day two, "We are very close to some more team records, and we have had a lot of personal/lifetime bests. The meet is a lot faster than last year, but we are having a great meet. The women have moved up a couple spots in the rankings compared to last year."
 
Saturday's Top-Eight Relays & Individual A Finalists:
Women's 200 medley relay – second place – UTPB "A" (Ave McCormack, Avery Momotiuk, Rowan McWhorter, Mackenzie Gingerich) – 1:48.44
Men's 200 medley relay – second place – UTPB "A" team (Zane Garner, Sean Greene, Colin Doyle, Logan Fultz) – 1:31.64
Men's 200 medley relay – third place – UTPB "B" team – Nico Turner, Chase Alderman, Tommy Betancour, Kell Frazier) – 1:32.46
Women's 100 butterfly – third place – Ava McCormack – 59.06
Women's 100 butterfly – fifth place – Rowan McWhorter – 59.93
Men's 100 butterfly – first place – Colin Doyle – 49.49
Men's 400 IM – fourth place – Owen Putnam – 4:06.47
Men's 200 freestyle – second place – Sean Greene – 1:40.34
Men's 200 freestyle – third place – Niklas Heelein – 1:41.17
Women's 100 breaststroke – third place – Rowan McWhorter – 1:07.25
Women's 100 breaststroke – fourth place – Avery Momotiuk – 1:07.90
Men's 100 breaststroke – sixth place – Chase Alderman – 57.21
Women's 100 backstroke – fourth place – Ava McCormack – 58.58
Men's 100 backstroke – second place – Nico Turner – 50.36
Men's 100 backstroke – third place – Zane Garner – 50.77
Men's 100 backstroke – fourth place – Cooper Workman – 50.78
Men's 100 backstroke – fifth place – Colin Doyle – 51.23
 

Tiger Invitational Day 3 – Sunday, November 23
McCormack finished third in the women's 200 backstroke with a time of 2:07.69 and Workman took second in the men's 200 backstroke with a time of 1:51.34. In addition, Workman's prelim time of 1:50.19 broke UTPB's record of 1:50.92 set in 2010 by Joseph Sarradet.

UTPB had five A finalists in the men's 100 freestyle. After winning in the prelims (45.81) for the third time in the meet (once each day), Doyle finished in second place with a time of 46.16 seconds and was followed by Turner (46.23) in fourth, Heelein (46.51) in fifth, Espericueta (46.82) in seventh and Logan Fultz (46.84) in eighth.

Momotiuk was third with a time of 2:27.98 in the women's 200 breaststroke.

For the second year in a row, Putnam won the men's 200 butterfly, doing so this time with a time of 1:50.50. He also won the prelims with a time of 1:50.87, becoming the only Falcon other than Doyle to win an event in the prelims.

UTPB was paced in the men's 1650 freestyle by Heelein (16:20.10) in third place and Addison Richardson (16:39.90) in fifth place.

In the final event of the meet, UTPB's women's 400 freestyle relay "A" team increased its standing from seventh place a year ago to fourth place this year and bettered its time from last year by over nine seconds. In the men's 400 freestyle relay, the UTPB "A" team of Doyle, Turner, Greene and Heelein finished second with a time of 3:04.17, over three seconds better than last year's time.
 
Sunday's Top-Eight Relays & Individual A Finalists:
Women's 200 backstroke – third place – Ava McCormack – 2:07.69
Women's 200 backstroke – sixth place – Mackenzie Gingerich – 2:16.08
Men's 200 backstroke – second place – Cooper Workman – 1:51.34
Men's 200 backstroke – eight place – Zane Garner – 1:58.50
Women's 100 freestyle – fifth place – Rowan McWhorter – 53.76
Men's 100 freestyle – second place – Colin Doyle – 46.16
Men's 100 freestyle – fourth place – Nico Turner – 46.23
Men's 100 freestyle – fifth place – Niklas Heelein – 46.51
Men's 100 freestyle – seventh place – Brannan Espericueta – 46.82
Men's 100 freestyle – eighth place – Logan Fultz – 46.84
Women's 200 breaststroke – third place – Avery Momotiuk – 2:27.98
Men's 200 breaststroke – fifth place – Sean Greene – 2:05.62
Women's 200 butterfly – seventh place – Samarrah Hernandez – 2:27.96
Men's 200 butterfly – first place – Owen Putnam – 1:50.50
Men's 1650 freestyle – third place – Niklas Heelein – 16:20.10
Men's 1650 freestyle – fifth place – Addison Richardson – 16:39.90
Women's 400 freestyle relay – fourth place – UTPB "A" team (Avery Momotiuk, Mackenzie Gingerich, Ava McCormack, Rowan McWhorter) – 3:36.92
Men's 400 freestyle relay – second place – UTPB "A" team (Colin Doyle, Nico Turner, Sean Greene, Niklas Heelein) – 3:04.17
Men's 400 freestyle relay – fourth place – UTPB "B" team (Logan Fultz, Cooper Workman, Kell Frazier, Brannan Espericueta) – 3:07.32
 

Next up: The Falcons are off until Saturday, December, 6 when they travel to McMurry University for a double dual meet.