Super Ciriaco – Sophomore propels Mustangs to five All-American awards

COLUMBUS, GA. – Realizing potential.

Morningside University head swimming coach Bryan Farris used those words to reflect on a sophomore men's student-athlete who had a night to remember at the Columbus Aquatic Center.

"Joe (Ciriaco of Papillion, Neb.) has always had the talent to excel," Farris noted after he swam to individual All-American honors in the 50-yard freestyle and joined the 200-yard freestyle quartet with senior James Camp (Brisbane, Australia) and juniors Caleb Thomson (Libertyville, Ill.) and JR Albers (Gillette, Wy.) for similar results. "He's starting to go beyond that and see his full potential. I don't think he's ever realized how far he can go."

After producing an eighth-place finish in the 50 (21.01 seconds), which took 13-hundredths of a second off his prelim mark and anchoring the relay to sixth (1:23.35) to designate five Mside All-American awards during day two of the 2022 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Championships Thursday, March 3, Ciriaco and others on the Mustangs squad might be seeing where else they and the program can go.

"It's been since 2013 during my first year as head coach to when we had our last men's All-American award," Farris reflected. "We had things going very well today. Joe wound up getting ahead of a large group that vied for the last spot to make the finals. The relay team has just thrived on swimming together. They each had up and down days in the 50 beyond what Joe did, but, as a team, it all worked out." 

Those two efforts added in with a top 15 in the 400-yard medley relay, with Ciriaco again anchoring to go along with Albers, Camp, and freshman Caden Morton (Gillette, Wy.), put the Mustangs just outside the team first 10. Their 51 points were good for 11^th, only 12 behind Simpson College of California for the last best ten slot.

Morningside's women added some highlights to a thrilling Thursday. The 200-yard freestyle team of sophomores Josie Dike (Riverton, Wy.), Mackenzie Campbell (Guthrie Center, Iowa), and Rachel Roose (Waverly, Iowa) raced to a 1:41.73. Campbell, Dike, and Roose joined fellow sophomore Grace Holzerland (Sioux City, Iowa) to drop better than eight-tenths of a second off their prelim time and hit the pad in 4:13.32 in the finals.

"The women had a solid 200 free relay," Farris said. "They came together later and ripped some time off the 400-medley relay, too, with some impressive splits. They, like the men, have been willing to step up to the challenge in every event. We're not backing off across the board. If it doesn't work in one race, everyone is of the philosophy to pick themselves back up and try to do something in the next event."

Morningside resumes action at the 2022 NAIAs Friday, March 4.