Return to home includes Lopes wins across board

Saturday, January 13

Phoenix, Ariz.

1 p.m.

Grand Canyon

206

Arizona Christian

Photo by: Rachel Sollazzo

1/13/2024 5:31:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Women take care of business while men shine in off-events

By: Nathan Peters

The Grand Canyon swimming and diving program returned to its home pool and the win column Saturday when the women defeated WAC foe New Mexico State 159-141 and both squads recorded big wins against Arizona Christian and Ottawa.

The Lopes bounced back after tough dual meets at Arizona State and Arizona in the last week. On Saturday, the GCU men swam with tech suits while the Lopes women did not.

GCU's impressive meet included a first- and second-place finishes from juniors Maria Chatzi and Maria Brunlehner in the 100-yard freestyle. Chatzi went 52.21 and Brunlehner followed closely at 52.38 seconds.

Brunlehner also took first in the 50 freestyle with a time of 23.91.

On the men's side, Lopes freshman Joe Stephenson won the 1,000 freestyle in 9 minutes, 36.97 seconds.

GCU's Briana Rittenbach placed first in the 100 backstroke . The graduate student went 56.51.

Lopes sophomore Carter Dooling touched in at 1:52.55 in the 200 butterfly, although he is primarily a breaststroker.

GCU sophomore Mohamed Mohamady claimed first in the 100 freestyle, finishing in 45.48 seconds.

Fellow Lopes sophomore Jonathan Rom continued his impressive week with a strong time of 1:51.57 in the 200 backstroke.

GCU senior Raphaela Nakashima won her 200 breastroke by less than a second by going 2:21.35.

In the diving competition, Lopes freshman Lucinda Harrison placed third in the 3-meter event with a score 235.28 points.

Senior Reece Robles won the 3-meter event for GCU with a score of 324.23 points, along with senior teammate Isaac Poole winning the 1-meter event with 333 points.

GCU will return to Riverside, California, on Jan. 20 to face California Baptist and UC San Diego.

Full results from Saturday can be found here.