Men take 4th at TYR Fall Classic

Friday, October 4

Miami, Fla.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

TYR Fall Classic

10/5/2019 6:00:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Day 1 TYR Fall classic Team Scores TYR Fall Classic Final Results TYR Fall Classic Final Team Scores

Lopes men, women open 2019-20 season in Miami

By: Sierra Smith

MIAMI — The Grand Canyon swimming and diving programs opened its season at Florida International this weekend in the TYR Fall Classic, where the men's team took fourth place in a stacked field.

The meet included TCU, LSU, Florida Atlantic, Pittsburgh, Old Dominion, George Washington, Army, FIU's women and Keiser's men. The GCU men's team stood in fifth place after Friday and scored 189 points on Saturday to move ahead a spot with 382 points, just 12 behind George Washington. The Lopes women finished in eighth place, scoring 292 points.

"The men competed well, and we are learning what it takes to win in the post (Mark) Nikolaev/(Danil) Antipov era," GCU head coach Steve Schaffer said. "We have a lot of work to do but we are very pleased with how our first-year guys stepped up with some really good early-season times."

On the first day at Biscayne Bay Aquatic Center, the men finished with strong third-place finishes in the 200-yard freestyle by freshman Griffin McKean (1 minute, 40.88 seconds) and 200 freestyle relay by sophomore Mazen Shoukri, freshman Omar Elsayd, freshman Amir Haviv and sophomore Florent Janin (1:23:88).

"Griffin McKean and Mikhail Lyubavskiy had several excellent swims, Omar Elsayd Impressed in the sprint freestyle events and Amir Haviv did well in the breaststroke events," Schaffer said.

The Lopes went into Day 2 of the TYR Fall Classic with a more confident approach as the first-day jitters went away.

"We knew this would be a tough team meet for our women with having to go up against some very good Power-5 schools and NCAA Championships scoring teams," Schaffer said. "It is great to see the culture of the women's team improving and mostly everyone learning to compete hard for the entire meet."

LSU placed 30th and FIU placed 37th at the NCAA Championships last season. Pittsburgh was also a top-50 ranked team in Division I as well.

Freshman Kelsey Andrusak set the bar high in her first meet as a Lope, finishing third in the 500 freestyle and fourth in the 200 butterfly.

"Kelsey Andrusak set the standard for how we want all of our women to compete," Schaffer said. "She gave everything she had in every race."

GCU senior divers Pietro Hufnagel Toscani and Nick Benson showed well in the opening meet of the season. Toscani won the 1-meter dive with a score of 331.90, an NCAA Zone Championships qualifying score. Benson finished second in the "B" final with a score of 270.85.

Freshmen divers Ava Talorico and Sara Lameiro Castellanos also did well in their Lopes debuts with scores of 210.80 and 230.55, respectively.

"We still have a lot of work to do to be able to place where we want to in the WAC Championships," Schaffer said. "We are looking forward to seeing how we improve at our meet in Seattle in two weeks."

Follow GCU swimming and diving on Twitter and Instagram at @GCU_Swimming for more information throughout the season.