Women take 1st, men finish 2nd at MPSF Open Water

Saturday, October 19

Long Beach, Calif.

Grand Canyon

MPSF Open Water Championships

Photo by: Wesley Kurz

10/19/2024 6:31:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

GCU sophomore Criscione places 3rd with time of 1:05:42

By: Nathan Peters

LONG BEACH, Calif. — The Grand Canyon swimming team had a strong day at the second-ever Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Open Water Championships, where the Lopes' women placed first out of 11 teams with the GCU men taking second out of seven.

On the Lopes' men's side, freshman Batu Servi finished third in the 5-kilometer event with a time of 59 minutes 34 seconds.

Behind Servi, GCU sophomore Colin Campbell finished seventh in the 20-man field with a time of 1 hour, 3 minutes, 52 seconds. In addition, sophomore Joe Stephenson (ninth), freshman Easton Mousser (13th) and senior (15th) all finished in the top 15 for the Lopes.

In the 2,000-meter men's relay race, Servi, Mousser, Campbell and Stephenson took first place with a time of 24:06.

In the women's 5K, the Lopes were led by sophomore Vivi Criscione. who placed third out of 45 athletes with a time of 1:05:42.00.

GCU senior Aleksandra Wegrzynowska went 1:07:39 to earn a sixth-place finish.

Sophomore Summer Dean (10th) and senior Maria Chatzi (22nd) each finished in the top 25 for the Lopes as well.

In the 2,000-meter women's relay, the GCU squad of Chatzi, Criscione, Dean and Wegrzynowska were time at 25:30 for second place, clinching the overall first-place team win for GCU with 121 points.

In addition, Lopes head coach Steve Schaffer competed in the 1,000-meter Master's race.

All results can be found here from the event.

Next up, the Lopes will head to Hawai'i to compete on Oct. 25-26.