Swimmers Knock Off DI Stony Brook

Saturday, January 15

Phoenix, AZ

1:30 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Stony Brook

Artem Tretiakov

1/15/2011 7:18:49 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

By: Mike McNally

The Grand Canyon University men’s and women’s swimming teams knocked off Division I Stony Brook this afternoon at the Dottie Boreyko/Brophy Sports Campus in Phoenix, Ariz. It marked the first time for each program that they have knocked off a Division I opponent.

"The kids swam very well today,” said head coach Steve Schaffer. “All of our mid-year additions picked up at least one NCAA B cut and in all we had 10 swims that were B cuts, and that's really great given how tired the kids are at this point in the season.”

The No. 14 ranked women used strong swims by Catherine Polito and Mychala Lynch to down the Seawolves, 139.5-64.5.

Polito picked up wins in the 100 and 200 free, setting NCAA B Cut times of 53.26 and 1:54.88, respectively. Lynch recorded a pair of B Cuts, winning both the 50 free (24.21) and the 200 fly (2:07.95).

The No. 8 men’s team defeated the Seawolves, 139-65.

Ivan Nechunaev led the way with a pair of wins, taking first in the 400 IM (4:19.46) and 500 free (4:52.13). GCU swept the top-three places in the 100 free, with Artem Tretiakov (47.64) beating out teammates Michael Branning (49.17) and Jordan Wagner (50.36).

In all, the women won 10 of 11 events contested, while the men took 9 of their 11 events.

“We are just 26 days out from the conference championships where we will try to get the rest of our NCAA championships team qualified, so it is almost time to start resting for that,” said Schaffer. “The times from this meet are a very good sign that we are on track for some very fast swimming at the RMAC Championships. I am very excited for these kids!”

The home slate continues next weekend for the men’s and women’s teams as they host Biola on Jan. 22 at 1:30 p.m.

Full results can be viewed here.