GCU sprints to win over CBU

Saturday, December 12

Phoenix, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

170

130

California Baptist

Photo by: Mathew McGraw

12/12/2020 6:54:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Pool records drop in Lopes victory

By: Mark Oshidari

Results

The Grand Canyon men's swimming and diving team cruised to a 170-130 home victory over California Baptist on Saturday at the Fr. Edward A. Reese Aquatic Center.

"This was perhaps the swimmers and divers most complete team effort we have ever had in a dual meet for both our women and men in all my years of coaching at GCU," said head coach Steve Schaffer. "Almost all of our swimmers and divers scored points for us, and it was one of the fastest dual meets we have ever had at home with 6 new pool records set, 3 by us and 3 by Cal Baptist. COVID has made this season so much more difficult for our athletes, and to see both teams showed that they have the resiliency to put all of that aside and step up and compete as well as they did was so inspiring to watch. I am very proud of all them!"

GCU set a pair of pool records in the win over CBU. Lopes junior Florent Janin won the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 43.87 seconds, besting the previous mark set by Mark Nikolaev in September 2019.

The 400 freestyle relay team of junior Samuel McKenzie, sophomore Omar Elsayd, junior Mazen Shoukry and Janin ended the meet with an exclamation point. The quartet raced to a winning time of 2:58.34, beating the previous mark of 3:00.91 from October 2018.

Sophomore Mikhail Lyubavskiy proved too tough in the distance events, claiming medalist honors in the 1,000 freestyle (9:30.28) and 500 freestyle (4:30.19).

The Lopes swept the 50 freestyle with Janin winning with a time of 20.22. He was followed by Shoukry (20.60) and Elsayd (20.79).

Sophomore Elijah Clements (49.33) led a GCU sweep in the 100 butterfly. Clements was followed by Shoukry (49.38) and junior Alonso Carazo Barbero (49.44).

GCU took the top two spots in the 200 freestyle. McKenzie won the event with a time of 1:37.87. Sophomore Griffin McKean finished runner-up at1:39.51.

The diving team featured a trio of freshmen. Thomas Wesche led the Lopes with a pair of runner-up finishes, just short of NCAA zone qualifying scores.

On the 1-meter board, Wesche finished second with a score of 279.30. Isaac Poole (264.67) and Reece Robles (247.35) followed in third and fourth, respectively..

In 3-meter diving, Wesche placed second with a score of 287.62. Robles (209.92) placed fourth and Poole (209.60) took fifth.

"Our men were not quite as short-handed as our women, but we still were missing several of our top swimmers and one of our divers," said Schaffer. "The CBU men have some excellent swimmers, as todays results showed, but our guys raced really well. If CBU won an event, our guys went 2,3,4 to limit the damage to 1 point lost. In our best events, we stepped up and earned some 1,2,3 sweeps that really made a difference. Even with the meet result certain going into the last event, the 400 Free Relay, both teams raced really well and were faster than the existing pool record. Like the women's meet, it was just a fantastic meet to watch and be part of."