Lopes fight until very end against Sun Devils

Saturday, January 6

Tempe, Ariz.

11 a.m.

Grand Canyon

232

Arizona State

Photo by: Nathan Peters

1/6/2024 10:21:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Day at ASU included 2 lifetime bests, 14 season bests, 2 individual wins

By: Nathan Peters

The Grand Canyon swimming and diving team fell in men's and women's competition to elite Arizona State squads at Saturday dual meets in Tempe.

The loss for the Lopes mens marks their first ever against the Sun Devils. GCU's first meet since returning from the holiday break ended with high spirits despite ASU's top-ranked competition winning 232-66 on the men's side and 247-53 on the women's side.

"I am really proud of how our swimmers performed today," Lopes head coach Steve Schaffer said. "The ASU men are ranked first and look to be a very strong contender to win the NCAA Championships while their women are ranked 15th in Division I. Our swimmers really took advantage of the opportunity to race a really fast team."

The Lopes had numerous bright spots. To start the day, the women's 200-yard medley squad clocked in at 1 minute, 41.50 seconds to place third. The team was made up of graduate Briana Rittenbach, senior Raphaela Nakashima, sophomore Paula Martinez Moreno and junior Maria Brunlehner.

GCU sophomore Jonathan Rom won his 200 individual medley race with a time of 1:55.66.

Sam Jennings was also victorious in the 200 backstroke event. The junior went 1:45.55.

In addition, Lopes freshman Joe Stephenson had a career best in the 100 butterfly with a time of 51.33 seconds.

In 3-meter diving, GCU senior Isaac Poole finished third with 304.58 points.

"The score doesn't really tell the story," Schaffer said. "For an unrested meet, in season, we look for our swimmers to have times within 5% of their season-best times. Today, we had 96% of our swims within 5%, which is exceptional at this point in the season."

The Lopes will next go to Tucson to face Arizona on Friday before hosting a home meet next Saturday.

The team had two lifetime-best times and 14 season-best times Saturday, along with the two individual wins from Rom and Jennings.

"It was a great way to start the new year," Schaffer said. "Our schedule is very tough over the next month, and hopefully our performance today will give us some good momentum as we continue moving towards the WAC Championships and our postseason meets with a lot to look forward to."

Full results can be found here.