EDMOND, Oklahoma (Nov. 11, 2021) – Even on a day when five school records fell and Oklahoma Christian posted potential NCAA Division II national qualifying times in three events, J.T. Amrein stood out for the Eagles.

Amrein lowered the OC school record in the 200-yard individual medley by a whopping 3.24 seconds, swimming the fastest time in that event so far this season in NCAA Division II as the Eagle Invitational opened on Thursday night at the Mitch Park YMCA pool.

Two other Eagles – Brandon Heredia in the 50 freestyle and Chase Fields in the 500 freestyle – also posted NCAA B-cut times and OC set school records in those events and in the 200 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay events. But Amrein stole the show from everyone with perhaps the best individual performance in the five-season history of the OC program.

The OC 200 IM record entering the day was 1:50.92, set by Bergen Davis at the 2020 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships. Amrein snapped that mark with a time of 1:49.89 in the morning preliminary round, then dropped it again to 1:47.68 in the final.

That easily met the Division II B-cut standard to qualify Amrein for the Division II Championships in March and it was – according to the website collegeswimming.com – the best 200 IM time in Division II this season by a considerable amount. Atop the website's list on Thursday was Keegan Hawkins of Grand Valley State (Mich.), whose top time was 1:49.08.

Amrein finished nearly six seconds ahead of the race runner-up, teammate Jason Seitz, a freshman from Glen Allen, Va., who had a quite respectable time of 1:53.50. OC freshman Lorenzo Tabladini of Castenedolo, Italy, took third in 1:54.18.

Heredia, a junior from Maryville, Mo., lowered his own school record in the 50 freestyle from 20.35 seconds to 20.25 seconds during the preliminary swim on Thursday morning before coming back at night to win in 20.27 seconds, with freshman Felix Berling of Meppen, Germany, second in 20.63 seconds. The NCAA B-cut time in the event is 20.75 seconds.

Fields, a freshman from Tyler, Texas, outdueled teammate Caleb Musser, a freshman from Overland Park, Kan., to win the 500 freestyle. Fields finished in 4:34.00 to meet the NCAA B-cut standard, while Musser posted a time of 4:35.51. Both swam faster than the former OC record in the event of 4:38.33, set by Nathan Bruner in the 2020 Eagle Invitational in the same pool.

The Eagles, ranked 18th in Division II, also dominated in the relays. In the 200 freestyle relay, Musser, Amrein, freshman Dereck Montgomery of Rosenberg, Texas, and Heredia won in 1:21.57. The previous OC mark of 1:22.02 was set by Heredia, Nathan Braun, Jacob Nixon and Bruner in the 2021 RMAC Championships in February.

OC also took top honors in the 400 medley relay as the quartet of sophomore Reese McIlroy of Rockwall, Texas, Amrein, sophomore Elijah Tung of Columbia, S.C., and Heredia finished in 3:17.32. That was more than 1.5 seconds faster than the former record of 3:18.87, set by Noah Woollweever, Zac Hawes, Kurt Gscheidle and Heredia at the 2019 RMAC meet.

On the schedule for Friday in the meet will be the 400 individual medley, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke and the 100 backstroke. Prelims will begin at 10 a.m., with the finals to start at 7 p.m.

The meet includes teams from OC, fellow Division II programs Texas-Permian Basin and Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) and Barton (Kan.) Community College. OC led after the first day with 443.5 team points, followed by Barton with 237, Ouachita Baptist with 201.5 and UTPB with 152.

Meet video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyDdrVNnQFI

Josh Davis discusses the meet's first day: https://youtu.be/TXbN5OYC79E