Strong start in Day 2 for the Lopes

Thursday, February 24

Houston, Texas

9:30 A.M. / 7 P.M.

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

Photo by: Juan DeLeon Creative

2/24/2022 10:32:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving

Day 2 WAC Final Results

200 free relay earns gold

By: Chelsie Davidson

HOUSTON - The Grand Canyon men's swimming and diving team stays stagnant in fifth place with 209 points after day two of the WAC Championships at CRWM Natatorium on Thursday.

Jack Armstrong, Omar Elsayd, Samuel McKenzie and Florent Janin were crowned WAC Champions in the 200-yard freestyle relay after they swam a one minute, 18.34 seconds in the first event of the night.

Day two started the swimmers off in the 500-yard freestyle. Junior Mikhail Lyubavskiy swam a 4:23.90 in the A final to finish fifth. Classmate Ian Shultz placed 12^th in the B finals with a time of 4:32.65.

In the 200-yard individual medley, Griffin McKean and McKenzie combined for a fifth-sixth finish in the event. McKean swam a 1:47.77 in a tight race while McKenzie was right there beside him as he finished with a time of 1:47.79 in the A finals.

Senior Alonso Carazo Barbero also scored in the event as he finished 15^th in the B finals with a time of 1:51.32.

Armstrong finished fourth in a competitive A final in the 50-yard freestyle. He swam a 19.61 in a tight race that put him just outside a podium finish. Teammates Janin and Elsayd went seventh and eighth in the A final with a time of 20.00 and 20.02.

Diving started the day off in the 1-meter event where GCU sophomore Isaac Poole made the final cut with a prelim score of 281 points. Poole posted a score of 312.10 points in the finals finishing fourth place.

"Men's 1-meter went well with Isaac holding his own in a stacked competition," head diving coach Hunter Shafer said. "It was probably the most competitive 1-meter WAC in a while. His fourth-place finish was great."

Sophomore duo Nicholas Gunn and Reece Robles competed in the consolation finals. Gunn finished second with 257.85 points while teammate Robles posted 233.10 for a fifth-place finish.

GCU is back at it tomorrow for day three. Preliminary competition for day two will begin at 9:30 a.m. (Phoenix time) with finals set to begin at 5 p.m. (Phoenix time) every day this week.

Prelims will be livestreamed on wacsports.com/watch with finals set to air on ESPN+.