Strong weekend makes up home debut

Friday, October 21

Phoenix, Ariz.

5 p.m.

Grand Canyon

163

Seattle U

Swimmer fully submerged in middle of race

Photo by: Skyler Coblentz

10/21/2022 1:30:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

SATURDAY RESULTS FRIDAY RESULTS

Men's, women's teams conclude final day with wins

By: Nathan Peters

The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming and diving teams continued their Friday success into Saturday to close out the first home meet of the year.

The GCU men finished Saturday with a win against Seattle U, 136-65, at Fr Edward A. Reese Aquatic Center in Phoenix. The women again beat Loyola Marymount, 162-39, and Seattle U, 153-51, while taking a loss to San Diego State, 156-66.

"It was a good meet for us," Lopes head coach Steve Schaffer said. "A lot of improvement for both the men and the women over the last couple of weeks. Meet by meet, we are getting better with our racing skills and swimming smarter. I'm really impressed with how well our new swimmers are adapting to our program and with how many of our returners are starting off the year better than prior years."

One of the day's best performances came from sophomore Wyatt Dickman, who swam the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10 minutes, 1.03 seconds. The time was over eight seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. For the women's team, freshman Paula Martinez Moreno swam a 56.26 in the 100 butterfly.

With regard to diving, Shaffer stated, "Our divers are also off to a great start with both Isaac Poole and Abigail Erickson earning NCAA Zone Championship qualifying scores."

Poole posted a final score of 324.45, and Erickson finished with 266.78.

The Lopes are off to a promising start and wil look to continue to build on these performances when Air Force visits Phoenix on Nov. 4-5.

"We are looking forward to the Air Force meet," Schaffer said. "It will be a good test for us as we continue preparing to peak for our midseason invitational in December."

Day 1 recap

GCU had impressive showings from multiple swimmers Friday through the first 25 events of its home opener.

The GCU men's team won the evening's dual against Seattle U, 141-63, at Fr Edward A. Reese Aquatic Center. The women's team was victorious against Loyola Marymount, 168-36, and Seattle U, 163-41, but fell to San Diego State, 147-76.

The Lopes began the night with a second-place finish in the women's 200-yard medley relay. The team constructed of senior Briana Rittenbach, junior Raphaela Nakashima, freshman Paula Martinez Moreno and graduate Emily Muteti posted a finals time of one minute, 44.63 seconds. Individually, Aleksandra Wegrzynowska won the 200 freestyle in a close finish, clocking a time of 1:54.23. The sophomore also later came up with a second-place finish in the 200 butterfly.

On the GCU men's side of the action, sophomore Sam Jennings won the 100 backstroke with a time of 51.50, building off last week's time of 52.15 in Tucson. Jennings also contributed a second-place finish in the 200 individual medley. Junior teammate Harper Houk took first place in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 57.23 while the next closest finisher was nearly two seconds behind at 59.21.

The Lopes hope to continue the strong performances as the action will pick back up at 11 a.m. on Saturday at Fr Edward A. Reese Aquatic Center, located at Brophy Prep in Phoenix.