Lopes men take weekend victory in Ohio

Thursday, November 30

Oxford, Ohio

Grand Canyon

Miami Midseason Invitational

Photo by: Nathan Peters

12/2/2023 10:25:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Miami Midseason Invitational win led by personal bests, veteran leadership, poised freshmen

By: Nathan Peters

OXFORD, Ohio — The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming and diving teams had their best session of the week to close out the three-day Miami Midseason Invitational, resulting in the Lopes men securing a meet victory Saturday.

GCU got its winning ways going when junior Sam Jennings took first in the 200-yard backstroke behind his time of 1 minute, 44.35 seconds. In the meantime, sophomore Mohamed Mohamady took second in the event.

Lopes junior Maria Brunlehner made her return to action for the first time since Nov. 3. The junior placed second in the 100 freestyle at 50.0 seconds.

The GCU men continued their dominant run in freestyle events by going one-two-three in the 100 freestyle final. Sophomore Eli Cohen (44.13), sophomore Alex Volkov (44.28) and sophomore Grzegorz Wanat (44.57) each played an important role.

The whole weekend, the freshman swimmers were very poised. A perfect example came after freshman Guillermo Carrey Bosque was unhappy with his preliminary swim, but in the C final, Carrey Bosque swam a 44.08.

Senior Raphaela Nakashima continued to impress in the breaststroke events. She cracked the 2:18 mark with a time of 2:15.89 to place first in the A finals.

The GCU men went for first through third yet again during the 200 breaststroke event. Sophomore Jonathan Rom took first place with a time of 1:58.05, while sophomore Carter Dooling went 1:58.94 and senior Harper Houk went 2:00.11.

The sophomore Spaniard, Paula Martinez Moreno, continues to gain race experience while raking in victories. Martinez Moreno won the 200 butterfly event Saturday evening when she finished with a time of 2:00.16, outtouching the second-place finisher by less than a second.

In diving, junior Shiori Bak (254.20 points) had an impressive day by placing first in the platform competition while freshman Lucinda Harrison (186.50) placed third.

The men's divers were responsible for second through fourth for the Lopes, thanks to senior Isaac Poole and freshmen Bryce Porter and Luke Struiksma.

The men celebrated the team victory in fitting fashion by winning the final race of the invitational. The Lopes went 2:55.97 in the 400 freestyle relay, made up of Volkov, Wanat, Carrey Bosque and Cohen.

The final team score was a win for the men with 1,103 points while the women placed fourth with 710 points.

On Wednesday night before the meet began, GCU head coach Steve Schaffer discussed perspective with the team and how everything can be viewed in the perspective of a blessing. The team seems to have grasped that and utilized it to close the competition despite some unique adversity throughout the week.

Next up, the Lopes will compete at home on Dec. 9.

Full results from the invitational can be found here.

Day 2 recap

The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming and diving team spent day two expanding on day ones victories at the midseason invitational.

After another competitive finals night session, the Lopes men hold the lead while their score has grown to 772 points. The women are still in fourth place with room to make up some ground on the final day.

The men began the evening when they won the 200-yard medley relay going 1:27.35. The team was made up of Alex Volkov, Jonathan Rom, Sam Jennings, and Eli Cohen.

The team continued to add to it's weekend success of increasing personal bests.

Paula Martinez Moreno received an NCAA B cut time and personal best in the 100 butterfly with a time of 53.50 seconds. The sophomore also won the final.

Freshman Colin Campbell also had a career best in route to winning the men's 400 individual medley. Campbell went 3:56.57 to secure the victory.

Continuing on the men's side, Grzegorz Wanat won the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:37.99. This was almost a second faster than his preliminary qualifying time.

Raphaela Nakashima took care of business in the women's 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.62, which was over a second faster than the second-place finisher. Hailey Sears had a strong time in the B-final, going 1:03.68 to win the heat and earn a personal best.

The men went one-three in the finals of the 100 breaststroke thanks to Rom, Carter Dooling, and Harper Houk putting on a show.

Alex Volkov and Sam Jennings went one-two in the 100 freestyle final with times of 46.73 and 47.68. Volkov's time earned an NCAA B cut.

In diving, Isaac Poole placed third and Reece Robles placed eighth in the 3-meter event. Platform takes place Saturday at 11 a.m. (Phoenix time).

Results from Friday can be found here.

Day 1 recap

The Grand Canyon swimming and diving teams begun the Miami Midseason Invitational with many positives to build on, including the men's first-day lead.

The Lopes started the first of the three-day invitational with 63 personal bests.

Success in the evening finals session got started quickly with a win from the men's 200-yard freestyle relay. The team included freshman Guillermo Carey Bosque, sophomore Alex Volkov, junior Sam Wittmer and sophomore Eli Cohen, who claimed first in 1 minute 19.97 seconds.

Cohen continued his success when he had a career-best time of 19.85 seconds to take first in 50 freestyle final. The Lopes also placed second, third and fourth in the event with Volkov, Carey Bosque, and Wittmer, respectively.

The women got another first-place finish when graduate Briana Rittenbach swam a career best by going 22.96 seconds in the 50 freestyle. Rittenbach dazzled in each event of her evening with incredible underwater turns.

Despite some struggles in preliminaries and individual events from the women's team, the 400 medley relay team finished second with a screaming time of 3:93.63. Rittenbach led off in the backstroke portion, then senior Raphaela Nakashima had an incredible breaststroke leg, continued by sophomore Paula Martinez Moreno in the butterfly and junior Maria Chatzi closed in the freestyle.

The men won the medley relay, going 3:12.42. The squad included junior Sam Jennings, (backstroke), sophomore Jonathan Rom (breaststroke), Volkov (butterfly) and Cohen (freestyle).

In diving, seniors Isaac Poole and Reece Robles finished the 1-meter event in second and forth, respectively. On the women's side, junior Shiori Bak finished the 3-meter event by taking 14th.

In the team rankings, the men hold first place with 362 points for a 138-point lead over second place. The women are in a close battle, sitting in fourth with 161 points.

The Lopes are back in action with preliminaries taking place Friday morning at 7 a.m. (Phoenix time).

Results from the first day's finals can be found here.