Lopes men claim 1st place at Purdue Invitational

Thursday, November 21

West Lafayette, Ind.

Grand Canyon

Purdue Invitational

Photo by: Deb Schaffer

11/24/2024 5:30:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

GCU competes in 3-day meet after 4-year absence

By: Nathan Peters

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming and diving teams closed the three-day midseason meet at the Purdue Invitational, where the men finished first place with 949 points and the women finished third with 476.5 points this weekend.

GCU began the meet with a first-place relay finish in the 400-yard medley relay with junior Alex Volkov, graduate Harper Houk, sophomore Jasu Ovaskainen and sophomore Guillermo Carrey going 3 minutes, 8.89 seconds.

Lopes freshman Easton Mousser recorded a time of 4:26.73 in the 500 freestyle to take third in the finals. Mousser placed second in the 1,650 freestyle event (15:31.33).

Senior Maria Brunlehner touched the wall at 1:59.26 for second place in the 200 individual medley. Brunlehner also took second in the 100 freestyle, clocking at 49.54 seconds.

The Lopes men had strong performances in the 50-freestyle final with junior transfer Mario Perez taking second (19.86 seconds) and junior Alex Volkov taking fourth (20.20 seconds).

Men's diver Omar Elsayed placed sixth in the 1-meter diving with 332.10 points. The freshman later placed fourth in the platform diving with 361 points.

The GCU men tacked on more points in the 14th event of the competition when Volkov, Houk, Ovaskainen and Perez won the 200 medley relay with a time of 1:26.12. The time put the Lopes to the wall just 0.22 seconds ahead of the second-place time.

The Lopes tallied more points when sophomores Colin Campbell (3:52.93) and Joe Stephenson (3:55.60) placed first and third in the 400 individual medley.

GCU junior Paula Martinez Moreno got on the podium with a second-place finish in the 100 butterfly with a 53.60 mark.

Ovaskainen took third place to add to his strong showing with the 47.53-second butterfly finish.

Perez went 1:36.37 in the 200 freestyle to place second.

Volkov secured the first individual first place for GCU when the Israel native earned an NCAA B cut and touched at 45.93 seconds in the 100 backstroke.

Senior Sam Jennings placed third (1:44.63) with Volkov taking fourth (1:45.15) in the 200 backstroke.

Houk, a Tennessee native, played a big role in relay success but also swam a 1:58.09 time for second-place in the 200 breaststroke.

The GCU men's team sealed the meet with the second-place finish of Volkov, Perez, junior Eli Cohen and sophomore Guillermo Carrey going 2:54.76 in the 400-freestyle relay.

Next up, the Lopes will compete at home on Dec. 7.

Full results from the invitational can be found here.