Flames’ swimmers setting pace after second day at CCS Nationals in Arizona

Friday, March 28

Mesa, AZ

5:30 PM

Liberty University Club Sports

CCS National Championship Meet

The Flames got out to a flying start at this weekend's College Club Swimming National Championships, held outdoors at the Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa, Ariz. (Photo by Katelyn Foelsch)

Flames’ swimmers setting pace after second day at CCS Nationals in Arizona

3/30/2025 1:11:00 PM | Men's Swimming

Liberty leads three-time defending champion Purdue by 65.5 points going into Sunday's third round of preliminaries and finals.

Liberty University's men's swim team, which finished second at the past two College Club Swimming National Championships — at Ohio State in 2023 and Indiana University last spring — finds itself in first place after the second day of this weekend's CCS Nationals meet hosted by Arizona State University at Skyline Aquatic Center in Mesa, Ariz.

The Flames started off on the right path by winning Friday's meet-opening 200-yard freestyle relay in 6 minutes, 48.39 seconds, just 0.23 seconds in front of defending event champion Georgia Tech (6:48.62). Also on Friday, freshman Xander Williams became Liberty's third individual national champion in program history (graduate Matt Davidson and sophomore Drew Baxter are the others) by winning the 200 butterfly in 1:50.89, well ahead of Arizona State's Hugo Batchelor (1:51.60) and Luke Renier (1:51.63).

Liberty also finished swimmer-up in the 400 medley relay in 3:21.24, just 0.34 seconds behind Purdue and nearly three seconds faster than third-place Grand Canyon (3:24.19).

Through Saturday's races, which included silver-medal performances from the Flames' 200 medley and 400 free relays and Davidson in the 100 backstroke, Liberty totaled 627 points to place ahead of three-time-defending national champion Purdue (561.5) as well as Georgia Tech (458), Florida State (326), the host Sun Devils (310), Virginia (284), North Carolina State (272.5), California Poly (268), California Berkeley (250), and Grand Canyon (231), which rounded out the top 10.

The Flames were seeded first in the 200 medley after Friday's preliminary heat, but finished second to Purdue (1:29.08) in the final with a time of 1:30.80. In the 400 free, Liberty improved by 3.53 seconds over its fourth-place preliminary time to strike silver in 3:03.92, behind only the Boilermakers' time of 3:02.74.

Davidson nearly three-peated as national champion in the 100 back, placing second in 50.88, 0.26 seconds behind Florida State's James Riordon (50.62).

Complete results are available online.

Sunday's races, which include the 200 free relay, 50 back, 100 fly, 50 breast, 100 free, and 100 Individual Medley, are being streamed live on YouTube with the preliminaries starting at noon and the finals at 8 p.m. EST.