Men second, women tied for fifth after first day of WAC Championships

Wednesday, February 24

Houston, Texas

All Day

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships Day 1

Men second, women tied for fifth after first day of WAC Championships

2/24/2016 10:55:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

By: Charles Hampton

HOUSTON -- The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming teams completed the first day of competition of the 2016 WAC Swimming and Diving Championships from the CRWC Natatorium in Houston, Texas on Wednesday.

With six events complete, the men's team currently sits in second place of seven teams, trailing Air Force by just two points, 116-114. The GCU women wrapped up Day 1 tied for fifth place with Northern Colorado with 69 points. Northern Arizona is on top of the leaderboard heading into Thursday with a 62-point lead over CSU Bakersfield, with 147 total points.

Wednesday evening's swimming events kicked off with a thrilling finish to the women's 200-yard medley relay with four schools finishing within 0.81 seconds of each other. The GCU women entered the event with the fastest seed time, but the team of Iryna Glavnyk, Katie Robertson, Rebecca Coan and Jade Howard finished second overall, a mere .38 seconds behind Northern Arizona which improved on its seed time by almost six seconds to edge the Lopes.

The Lopes' men's 200-medley relay team of Mark Nikolaev, Youssef Elkamash, Daniil Antipov and Illya Glazunov broke the GCU school record and achieved a Division I"B" standard with a time of 1:25.41 to win the event over Air Force which entered competition with the best mark in the WAC.

The men went on to sweep the relay events on the evening, also taking the 800-yard freestyle relay title after Elkamash, Jacob Lambros, Iegor Lytvenok and Antiopv combined to break the school record by over two seconds with a time of 6:26.34. The Lopes edged out Air Force once again which finished second with a mark of 6:26.92.

CSU Bakersfield took the women's 800-yard freestyle relay with the Lopes finishing in third, 4.9 seconds behind the Roadrunners, with a time of 7:23.23.

Senior Mike Bidak was the top overall diver for the Lopes on Wednesday with a fifth-place finish in the 3-meter with a score of 291.00. On the women's side, Mennattalah Elmidany was the top GCU finisher in the 1-meter with a score of 225.45, good for 14th place.

Action continues Thursday at the CRWC Natatorium in Houston with the 500-yard freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle, men's 1-meter diving, women's 3-meter diving and the 200 freestyle relay. Prelims begin at 10:30 a.m. and the finals start at 6 p.m.

TEAM SCORES – Through Day One
WOMEN		MEN
Northern Arizona	147	Air Force	116
CSU Bakersfield	85	Grand Canyon	114
NM State	80	Wyoming	87
Idaho	77	UNLV	77
Grand Canyon	69	CSU Bakersfield	76
Northern Colorado	69	North Dakota	63
North Dakota	52	Seattle U	50
Seattle U	48

WEDNESDAY	02.24.16 \| Results \| Recap \| Photos
10:30 a.m.	Diving Prelims
6 p.m.	Swimming & Diving Finals \| Watch Live
THURSDAY	02.25.16 \| Live Results: Swimming • Diving \| Recap \| Photos
10:30 a.m.	Swimming Prelims
12:30 p.m.	Diving Prelims
6 p.m.	Swimming & Diving Finals \| Watch Live
FRIDAY	02.26.16 \| Live Results: Swimming • Diving \| Recap \| Photos
10:30 a.m.	Swimming Prelims
12:45 p.m.	Diving Prelims
6 p.m.	Swimming & Diving Finals \| Watch Live
SATURDAY	02.27.16 \| Live Results: Swimming • Diving \| Recap \| Photos
10:30 a.m.	Swimming Prelims
12:15 p.m.	Diving Prelims
6 p.m.	Swimming & Diving Finals \| Watch Live