HOUSTON — The Grand Canyon women's swimming team finished runner-up at the WAC Championships in Houston on Saturday night. The Lopes fell to nine-time champion Northern Arizona by 51.5 points. This is the smallest margin of victory that the Lumberjacks have posted over the conference runner-up.
GCU's Saturday route to topping 2016, 2020 and 2021 third-place finishes began with senior backstroker
Robyn Edwards, who began the finals by earning gold in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1 minutes, 56.53 seconds. Lopes junior
Briana Rittenbach also finished sixth in the "A" heat with a time of 1:59.68, while
Hannah Barker finished fourth in the 'B' final posting a time of 2:02.69.
Madeline Vindiola went the distance in the 1,650-yard freestyle. She recorded a best time of 17:13.73, dropping 32 seconds off her time.
Kenyan natives,
Maria Brunlehner and
Emily Muteti combined for two podium finishes in the 100-yard freestyle. Brunlehner placed swam a 49.41 for second place while Muteti posted a time of 49.78 for the bronze.
Claire Banic and
Kaitlyn Carr also finished fifth and sixth in the GCU stacked 'A' final.
GCU sophomore
Raphaela Nakashima placed second in the 200-yard breaststroke 'B' final posting a time of 2:17.93, while teammate
Fruzsi Macsok placed third with a time of 2:18.89.
Freshman
Aleksandra Wegrzynowska finishes second to earn silver in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of (1:58.63). Classmate
Christa Wilson finished second in the 'B' final with a best time of 2:04.95.
The women went out with a big finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The squad made up of Muteti, Banic, Carr and Brunlehner swam a 3:18.34 for the gold and and a new school record.
For diving, junior
Abigail Erickson put up 251.45 points in the platform finals to earn the silver medal.
Shiori Bak finished fourth with a total score of 227.10, while
Lizzy Mcknight placed fifth with a score of 216.60 points.
Up next, GCU will head to the CSCAA Invitational with qualifying swimmers on March 10-12.