GCU thrives in final home meet

Saturday, January 25

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

200

100

California Baptist

1/25/2020 8:05:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

GCU vs. CBU Photo Gallery

Lopes take down Lancers 200-100

By: Sierra Smith

The Grand Canyon men's swimming and diving team finished its last home meet of the season with a victory over California Baptist 200-100.

GCU seniors Eran Ber, Asahi Nagahata, Wiktor Jaszczak, Noah Lambert, Pietro Hufnagel Toscani and Nick Benson were recognized for their time as Lopes and were able to help secure the win in their last appearance at home.

"We swam and dove very well today with some surprisingly fast times, including several pool records," head coach Steve Schaffer said. "It was fun to be able to send off our seniors with wins for their final home meet."

The Lopes started strong by winning the 200-yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 30.81 seconds by the underclassman team of Kainan Coerin, Amir Haviv, Mazen Shoukri and Florent Janin.

In the 1650 freestyle, GCU swept the top three spots with swims from freshman Mikhail Lyubavskiy (15:26.80), sophomore Alonso Carazo Barbero (15:40.73), and Wiktor Jaszczak (15:50.09).

Another sweep took place from the Lopes in the next event, the 200 freestyle. Sophomore Samuel McKenzie took the gold (1:40.31), while Dylan Nasser took second (1:43.22) and freshman Briggs Shiller placed third (1:43.36).

Shoukri secured two top individual finishes as he took first in the 50 freestyle (20.72) and the 100 butterfly (49.70).

"On paper, the CBU men's meet was too close to call beforehand, especially after a particularly tough week of training," Schaffer said. "But everyone came to race. It was a complete team effort."

The Lopes took first, second and third in the 100 freestyle. McKenzie finished first (45.68), Janin in second (45.70) and freshman Omar Elsayd took third (45.81).

Ber, junior Cameron Carney and Nasser swept the 200 backstroke. First place was claimed by Ber in his final meet at home (1:51.68). Carney took second (1:51.90) and Nasser finished in third (1:52.54).

In the 500 freestyle, the Lopes took the top three spots again with Lyubavskiy leading the way finishing in 4:34.95. Jaszczak finished in second (4:37.35) and freshman Griffin McKean took third (4:41.79).

Carazo Barbero won the 200 individual medley (1:53.32) and Lyubavskiy finished in second place (1:55.23).

In the final event of the meet, the Lopes won the 200 freestyle relay with McKenzie, Elsayd, Shoukri and Janin taking the win (1:22.78).

Toscani won both dives with a score of 367.20 in the 1-meter and 364.05 in the 3-meter dive.

"We had some grumbling about working too hard this week before this meet, so I met with the team before the start today and explained that we are preparing for a tough three-day WAC Championships," Schaffer said. "They are going to get to the final day of WAC and will be tired like they are now. This week was a rehearsal for that. They certainly passed the test today."

Up next, the Lopes will travel to UNLV to take on the Rebels before going to the WAC Championships.

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