GCU opens 2021 season at LSU

The Grand Canyon swimming and diving teams begin the 2021-22 season on Saturday where they will face off in a dual meet against LSU at the LSU Natatorium. This will be the first ever matchup between the Lopes and the Tigers.

THREE THINGS TO KNOW:

SCHEDULED EVENTS: Swimmers will participate in the 200 Medley Relay, 1,000 Freestyle, 200 Freestyle, 100 Backstroke, 100 Breaststroke, 200 Butterfly, 50 Freestyle, 100 Freestyle, 200 Backstroke, 200 Breaststroke, 500 Freestyle, 100 Butterfly, 200 IM, and the 400 Freestyle Relay. Divers will compete on the 1M and 3M boards.
NEWCOMERS: The women's swim and dive team welcomed its largest recruiting class with a total of 13 newcomers on the roster this season with 11 freshman and two transfers. This class will feature athletes from eight countries and four different states and a plethora of state and national champions. In addition, the men's team welcomes five new additions to its 2021-22 squad. This class features state and international champions, All-Americans and an Olympic qualifier.
LOPES DUO COMPETE IN 2020 TOKYO OLYMPICS: Junior Emily Muteti and GCU alumnus, Talita Te Flan, represented GCU in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Te Flan also represented the Ivory Coast as she swam the 400-meter freestyle (4:38.92) and finished second of three participants in her heat. The top eight of 26 entrants into the event advanced to the finals with the last qualifying swimmer posting a time of 4:04.07. Muteti swam the 50 free (26.61) for Kenya. She finished fourth in her heat. The top three advance to the finals.

SCOUTING THE TIGERS
In the 2020-21 season, LSU sent one swimmer, Brooks Curry, and two divers, Anne Tuxen and Juan Celaya-Hernandez to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The Tiger swimmers are led by head coach Rick Bishop who begins his first year with LSU. Diving head coach Doug Shaffer enters his 20^th year with the Tigers. In 2020, Shaffer sent three divers to the NCAA Zone Championships and two divers to the 2020 Olympics.

WHAT'S AHEAD
The Lopes will compete in a full schedule for the first time since 2019. It will include six regular-season conference meets as well as high-caliber opponents in LSU, Miami (Ohio) and UCLA. In addition, the WAC Championships will take place from February 23-26.

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Players Mentioned

Emily Muteti

Grand Canyon University Athletics