Women’s Swimming and Diving Tops New Mexico State in Exciting Finish

Saturday, October 11

Las Cruces, NM

10:30 a.m.

Grand Canyon

154

140

New Mexico State

The GCU women's swimming and diving team following Saturday's win over New Mexico State.

Photo by: Deb Schaffer

Women’s Swimming and Diving Tops New Mexico State in Exciting Finish

10/11/2014 3:05:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving

Dual in Las Cruces came down to final relay

The Grand Canyon University women's swimming and diving team defeated Western Athletic Conference (WAC) foe New Mexico State in its season-opening dual, 154-140, Saturday at the New Mexico State Aquatic Center in Lac Cruces, N.M.

The dual came down to Saturday's final event—the 200-free relay—in which the Antelope quartet of Iryna Glavnyk, Marina Fonseca, Joana Ulyte, and Jovanna Koens took home top honors after compiling a time of 1:37.05.

"This was a great way to start the season," said head swimming coach Steve Schaffer. "It was a very close meet against a very well-coached team. It came down to who would win the final relay and our women got the job done. I am very proud of them."

"Hannah Kastigar was the iron-woman of the meet winning three of the toughest events in the meet," said Schaffer. "Jovanna Koens won the sprint free events for us and was on both winning relays; Iryna Glavnyk took care of the backstroke events and was on both winning relays; and Daria Talanova won the breaststroke events and was on the winning medley relay as well."

Reigning WAC Freshman of the Year Hannah Kastigar kicked off her sophomore campaign with a trio of first-place finishes, clocking the top time in the 200-fly (2:03.15), 500-free (5:03.72), and 400-IM (4:25.20).

Koens and Fonseca finished 1-2 in the 50-free, posting times of 24.25 seconds and 24.94 seconds, respectively. Koens also swam to a first in the 100-free, collecting a time of 52.59 seconds.

Glavnyk swam to a first-place finish in the 100-backstroke, touching the wall in a time of 56.81 seconds. Glavnyk added another first to her resume in the 200-backstroke, recording a time of 2:01.31.

Daria Talanova took first in the 100-breastroke, finishing the race in a time of 1:04.31. Vangelina Draganova was third in the same race (1:07.36). Talanova also outswam the competition in the 200-breastroke, placing first (2:23.59) ahead of teammates Yara Fakhry (2:25.89) and Draganova (2:26.92), respectively.

Rebecca Coan finished second in the 100-fly (58.20 seconds) and third in the 200-fly (2:10.69). Fakhry added a third in the 400-IM (4:43.25). In her first meet with Canyon, Rachel Adams finished third in both the 1-meter (177.90) and 3-meter (174.45) dives.

Glavnyk, Talanova, Kastigar and Koens put together the fastest time in the 400-medley relay, putting together a time of 3:51.17.

"One of our recruiting goals for the D-I transition has been to strengthen our depth and have more support behind our top swimmers and this meet showed that we are making good progress," added Schaffer. "Eight of the top ten scorers for us were freshmen and sophomores, and in all, 16 of the 18 women competing scored for us today."

"We have to get right back to work on Monday to get ready for Bakersfield on Saturday," concluded Schaffer.

The Lopes will be back in the pool next weekend, when both the GCU men and women host Bakersfield in a WAC dual at the Southwest Valley Family YMCA in Goodyear. More information on the swimming and diving season is available at www.gculopes.com.

Click here for the complete list of today's results.