Lopes battle Rainbow Warriors in dual meet losses

Friday, October 25

Manoa, Hawaii

Grand Canyon

155

Hawaii

Photo by: Deb Schaffer

10/27/2024 10:45:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

GCU looks forward to 1st home meet of season Friday, Saturday

By: Nathan Peters

HONOLULU – The Grand Canyon swimming and diving team concluded its first-ever dual meet at Hawai'i with a pair of losses for the men's and women's squads Friday and Saturday at the Duke Kahanamoku Aquatic Complex.

The Lopes men lost 155-88 on Friday before improving to a 105-100 defeat Saturday while the GCU women dropped 170-92 and 109-72 results this weekend.

GCU got going early in the meet with first- and second-place finishes in the men's 1,000-yard freestyle from Easton Mousser and Batu Servi. Mousser, a freshman from Springville, Utah, went 9 minutes 16.32 seconds with Servi going 9:24.89.

In the sixth event of the day, Lopes junior Alex Volkov went 47.80 seconds to win the 100 backstroke by nearly two seconds.

GCU junior Paula Martinez Moreno claimed first place in the 50 butterfly with a time of 24.78 seconds, just 0.07 seconds off her personal best from this year's CSCAA National Invitational Championship. The Spaniard also finished first in the 100 butterfly at 53.47 seconds.

Lopes senior Maria Brunlehner touched first to the wall at 22.95 seconds in the 50 freestyle.

Senior Raphaela Nakashima, freshman Beth Young and junior Hailey Sears took second, third and fourth place for GCU in the 50 breaststroke. Nakashima went 28.63 seconds with Young and Sears each finishing at 29.17 seconds.

Sophomore transfer Jasu Ovaskainen placed second in the 100 butterfly at 48.19 seconds.

GCU freshman diver Omar Elsayed took first in the platform with a school-record 403.58 points. Elsayed also placed second of six in the 1-meter event (312.53 points), which will earn a zone cut.

The second day of competition opened with both GCU 400 medley relay teams taking first place. The men clocked a time of 3:14.96 with the women touching at 3:41.72.

The men's 500 freestyle was a strong event for the Lopes with Servi taking first place (4:30.68), Mousser placing second (4:31.17) and sophomore Colin Campbell claiming third (4:37.56).

Brunlehner closed with a win in the 50 freestyle at 23.17 seconds.

Junior transfer Mario Perez won the men's 50 freestyle going 20.18 seconds.

Martinez clinched her third win of the weekend with a 2:01.39 200 butterfly finish.

Mohamed Mohamady placed first in the men's 200 backstroke. The junior went 1:45.93 while senior Sam Jennings clinched second with a time of 1:48.20.

Sophomore Ian Hirota won the men's 200 breaststroke competition going 2:01.21 finishing just 0.03 seconds ahead of second place in the 20th event of the day.

Despite the Lopes falling to the Rainbow Warriors, the meet consisted of many season-best times which lead to exhilarating races.

GCU will next host a meet for the first time Nov. 1-2 when Arizona Christian, Ottawa (Ariz.) and Simon Fraser (B.C.) head to Phoenix.