By COURTLIN HAYGARTH | HSU Sports Network

INDIANAPOLIS — An already historic week became even more historic for Lamar Taylor as he became the first male collegiate swimmer to win three individual NCAA National Championships in the same week since 2021. In just four days, the Henderson State Red Wave national championship count went from four to seven, with Taylor being responsible for nearly half of those.

The Freeport, Bahamas native came into the final day as the No. 2 overall seed behind teammate Jack Armstrong and then the No. 3 seed after the morning’s prelim swim, but Taylor remained in the zone as his special run continued with a 42.30 100-yard freestyle, out-touching the second-place swimmer by seven hundredths of a second, to claim his third championship trophy of the week.

“As soon as I get on the blocks, I am just swimming by myself,” Taylor said. “I do not see anybody else, I am just worried about myself. It feels like I am the only person in the water and I have that confidence where I know that this is about to be something spectacular.”

Taylor swam three races as an individual this week. He won three national championships. As an individual, Taylor never lost during his memorable week in Indianapolis.

As a team, the Henderson women got 13th out of 39 teams with 114 points while the Red Wave men finished in ninth out of 33 programs. Ninth is the HSU’s men’s best finish at Nationals since getting eighth in 2007 while 200 points at this year’s championships is the most points garnered in program history. 

Armstrong saw his second Top-3 national finish of the week after placing third in the 100 free with a time of 43.40. The Manvel, Texas, native, in his first year with the Red Wave program after transferring in from Division I Grand Canyon University, garnered five All-America selections – two as an individual and three as part of the relays.

Kiara Pozvai finished out her 2023 Nationals stint with her fifth All-America bid of the week, with her most recent one coming in the 100 free, where she finished as the National Runner-Up with a time of 49.21. After being named an All-American at last year’s National Championships, the true sophomore now has six All-Americans to her name.

The Henderson men finished off the week with a fourth-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 2:54.82. The Top-8 finish gave Taylor his team-leading sixth All-American while Armstrong tied Kiara Pozvai with five All-American selections. It was the first honor of the week for Patryk Dabrowski and Tate Sloan.

Henderson State finishes the week with 26 All-Americans, three National Championships and a pair of Top-15 finishes for the women and men. 2023 also held a NSISC Championship Runner-Up finish for the men while the women got third.