Swimming Opens Season with Alumni Meet

Sunday, September 28

Goodyear, AZ

3 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Alumni Meet (Southwest Valley Family YMCA)

9/28/2014 7:53:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Lopes open 2014-15 campaign with Alumni Meet Sunday in Goodyear

The Grand Canyon University men's and women's swimming teams held their Alumni Meet Sunday at the Southwest Valley Family YMCA—the facility in Goodyear will serve as the home for the Antelope swimmers and divers this season.

"This was a very fun way to kick off the transition from our preseason to regular season training and bring some of our alumni back to the pool," said head swimming coach Steve Schaffer. "We are still a young program and it is nice to have enough alumni to make the meet possible and I really appreciate all of them for joining us today, whether as competitors or observers. It was great to see them all."

The women's pentathlon winner was Iryna Glavnyk, just ahead of Hannah Kastigar. Dagny Knutson was the top finisher for the Alumni/Post Grad team, finishing third overall. Freshman Yara Fakhry impressed with a fourth place finish, and sophomore Jovanna Koens rounded out the women's top five.

The men's pentathlon was decided by just 0.03 seconds (three 100ths of a second), with Alumni/Post Grad swimmer Eetu Karvonen edging out junior Iegor Lytvenok. Post Grad team member Marcus Schlesinger place third with sophomore Jacob Lambros taking fourth and freshman Nathon Burwick placing fifth.

"It was good to see some of the top performances by our freshman and sophomores, we are counting on them to help us move the program forward this season," said Schaffer. "Seven of the top ten places in the women's pentathlon went to freshmen, and six of the top ten spots in the men's pentathlon went to sophomores and juniors."

"You could see this not just in the pentathlon results, but in individual stroke specialties as well," added Schaffer. "Sophomore Youssef Elkamash and freshmen Mantas Auruskevicius and Vangelina Draganova both had impressive early season times in the breaststroke, sophomores Mazen Elkamash and Koens had very good swims in the free and freshman Trent Trump was our second fastest non-alumni backstroker."

One school record was snapped Sunday, as Glavnyk beat Mychala Lynch's record (set in 2013) in the 100-IM, clocking a time of 58.51 seconds.

"Juniors Rebecca Coan and Illya Glazunov each had very good individual swims as well, with Becca finishing just behind Iryna in the fly and Illya finishing just .01 ahead of Mazen in the free," said Schaffer.

"With preseason over, we can get down to workouts every day and getting ready for the start of our dual meet season," concluded Schaffer. "Time to get to work."

The women will open the regular season Oct. 11 in Las Cruces, N.M., at New Mexico State. They will return the following weekend to join the men in hosting Bakersfield in a dual Oct. 18. Fans can visit www.gculopes.com for more information on the swimming and diving season.

Sunday's results can be viewed here.