INDIANAPOLIS- By virtue of their placement at the conference championship event, Great Midwest Swimming & Diving honors, including awards for the 2025-26 year were announced Wednesday afternoon.
 
To earn all-conference honors, the highest Great Midwest finisher in each event was filtered out from the Mountain East Conference, from the combined results.
 
Findlay swimmers Camilo Marrugo and Emily Mears-Bentley headline this year’s honorees as Swimmers of the Year.
 
Mears-Bentley claimed the top honor for the fourth consecutive year. The senior capped off a historic career at Findlay with a national championship title in the 200 butterfly. She clocked a time of 1:58.93 to take home the gold. This is Mears-Bentley first championship title, becoming the first female swimmer for both Findlay and the conference to claim a swimming national title. The Leicester, England native led the Oilers to a seventh place team finish, the highest in program history. Following her national championship finish, Mears-Bentley went on to set a program and conference record in the 100 freestyle, good for a second place finish at nationals.
 
On the men’s side, Marrugo led the Oilers to an eighth place team finish at nationals. The senior earned a third place finish in the 100 freestyle, good for all-American status. He also swam a leg in the 13^th place relay team that clocked a time of 2:55.29. At the conference meet, he won the 50 freestyle, 100 butterfly, 200 butterfly, and 100 freestyle to help lead the Oilers to their ninth consecutive G-MAC title.
 
The top Freshman honors for the men was split between Findlay’s Juan Blandon Torres and Ashland’s Lincoln Shirley. Torres qualified for the national championship meet as a member of the 200 and 400 freestyle relay teams. Shirley helped lead the Eagles to a second place team finish at the conference championship, earning points in the 1,000 yard and 1,650 freestyle races.
 
Sasha Babenko of Hillsdale was voted the top freshman on the women’s side. The Fort Lee, NJ native earned all-conference honors in the 200 backstroke with a personal best time of 2:02.37. Babenko and the Chargers finished as runner-ups in the team standings.
 
Divers Joey Lenczyk and Riley Hunt from Ashland repeated as male and female Divers of the Year. Both individuals took home the gold in the 1 and 3 meter dives at the conference championship and went on to qualify for D2 nationals.
 
Findlay’s Diego Santos was once again voted Coach of the Year for both the men and women. He led the women to their highest team finish, while also coaching Emily Mears-Bentley to become the program’s first ever female national champion. The men earned their second-best team finish under Santos’ guidance. A total of 16 student-athletes qualified for nationals, where 11 finished in the top three. Under Santos and his staff, the Oiler men won their ninth consecutive conference title, while the women were crowned champions for the sixth time in program history.
 
A full list of honorees can be found HERE.