Lopes smash six pool records at Seattle

Friday, October 28

Seattle, Wash.

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

Seattle (Swimmers) Day 1

10/30/2016 5:35:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

By: Lisa Amsler

SEATTLE— The Grand Canyon University swimming team wrapped up an action-packed, two-day meet at Seattle with six new pool records and several sweeping victories. The men's team defeated Seattle 110-94 on Friday and 125-79 on Saturday. The women's team suffered a 106-98 loss to Seattle on Friday, but defeated them 129-75 on Saturday while sweeping Loyola Marymount 140.5-61.5 and 158-43.

Estela Davis Ortiz led the Lopes winning all four of her events. She picked up the title in the 100-yard butterfly (57.09) and 100-yard backstroke (56.25) on Friday as well as two more first place finishes in the 200-yard butterfly (2:05.87) and 200-yard backstroke (2:02.11) on Saturday.

"We lost a meet we should have won on Friday against Seattle, but we had some excellent swims," Head Coach Steve Schaffer said. "We still have a lot to learn in terms of improving our racing skills and executing races properly."

Day One

The Lopes dominated the men's and women's 200-yard medley relays as well as the 400-yard freestyle relay. Nikolaev, Plavin, Trump and Lambros finished first in the freestyle relay and set a new pool record (3:05.10).

Jovanna Koens set her first of two pool records in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 50.79.

Elisha Walker and Roaia Mashaly tied for first in the women's 500-yard freestyle with a winning time of 5:11.83.

Daniil Antipov and Mark Nikolaev picked up their first of several victories, with Antipov finishing first in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:38.22) and Nikolaev setting two pool records in the 100-yard backstroke (47.15) and 100-yard freestyle lead off in the 400-yard freestyle relay (44.87).

Day Two

The Lopes collectively won all but two events. Behind Ortiz, Walker and Koens continued to help rack up points for the women. Walker finished first in the 1000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:39.08 while Koens set her second pool record of the weekend in the 50-yard freestyle (23.57).

Antipov added a first place finish in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:40.89) and 500-yard freestyle (4:39.30) while Nikolaev also won the 200-yard IM (1:49.52) and 200-yard backstroke (1:49.00).

Bogdan Plavin rounded out the pool records with his victory in the 50-yard freestyle (20.48) and picked up an additional win in the men's100-yard freestyle (46.21).
"The Seattle guys were fired up for their first meet of the year and gave us some really good races, but our guys stepped up to the challenge," Schaffer continued. "Both our men and women did a very good job of coming back to prove they could swim tired in a multi-day setting and still win."

The men's team will be back in the water on Saturday, November 5 at Air Force Academy.