Lopes men, women claim 2nd-place WAC finishes

Wednesday, February 28

Pharr, Texas

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

Photo by: Nathan Peters

3/2/2024 11:00:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Championships highlighted by WAC, program, personal records

By: Nathan Peters

PHARR, Texas – The Grand Canyon swimming and diving team closed the WAC Championship week out in exhilarating finish with a second-place clinching relay race.

The Lopes have now taken second in both the men's and women's competition's for two straight years, something that had never been accomplished prior to last season.

There are two things that help understand if a team is continuing to grow, school records being broken and all-time top ten times changing. The Lopes managed to do a lot of both along with a multitude of personal bests.

Today, GCU added records in the women's 100-yard freestyle, men's 200 breaststroke, and men's 400 freestyle relay.

The finals night session began with Vivi Criscione taking bronze in her first ever WAC Championship meet. Alongside the freshman's 16 minute 56.76 second time, was sophomore Krisalyn Henderson placing fourth with a time of 17:02.52.

GCU was represented on the podium in the men's 200 backstroke by sophomore Mohamed Mohamady who went 1:44.52 for an NCAA B cut mark.

Next for the Lopes was Grzegorz Wanat who placed third in the men's 100 freestyle final. The sophomore from Poland touched in at 43.38 seconds.

Junior Maria Brunlehner continued her dominant week claiming her third of three individual events where she won gold. Brunlehner went a school record of 48.79 seconds to claim the win.

Following Brunlehner at the Championship meet is never an easy task, but sophomore breaststroker Jonathan Rom made sure to put on a show. The Israel native not only won with a school record but also a WAC record to claim gold in the 200 breaststroke. Rom touched in at 1:53.87.

Lopes senior Raphaela Nakashima placed third in the women's 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:14.87. The Brazilian has already decided she will return next season with eligibility still remaining.

Paula Martinez Moreno fought hard in the women's 200 butterfly and came out with the bronze and a time of 1:59.38.

In the women's platform diving, junior Shiori Bak had an impressive showing of dives with a final score of 251.95 points to win bronze.

Despite all of the strong performances perhaps the most exciting moment came when the men's relay had control of whether the Lopes would finish second overall as a team or third. The 400 freestyle relay had a school record time of 2:52.04 to claim second. Th team included Wanat, sophomores Alex Volkov and Eli Cohen, as well as the freshman anchor Guillermo Carrey Bosque. Intially CBU placed third which would have still left them one point ahead in the team scores, however after further review they got disqualified for a premature finish, leaving the Lopes second place as a team for the second straight year.

GCU missed out on a couple points earlier in the day due to an injury and their own disqualification, proving that a WAC Championship meet cannot be left up to what is expected.

The women's 400 freestyle relay got out-touched at the wall by one one-hundredth of a second leaving them silver. The ladies had already clinched second as a team.

History may have repeated itself this year with both the men's and the women's teams taking second, but there is no question that the Lopes trajectory is in the right direction with this extremely young and talented team moving forward.

Full results from the week can be found here.

Day 3
Grand Canyon swimming and diving put on prime-time performances Friday evening at the WAC Championships.

The action-packed evening began with a great fourth place swim from junior Fruzsi Macsok in the women's 400-yard individual medley. The Hungary native finished with a time of 4 minutes, 22.87 seconds.

GCU sophomore Paula Martinez Moreno began her busy night session with a third-place finish in the 100 butterfly final. The Spaniard took bronze with a time of 53.57 seconds.

In the men's 200 freestyle, GCU's Grzegorz Wanat took bronze with a time of 1:35.81 while fellow Lopes swimmer Yigit Eksioglu was fourth with a time of 1:36.11.

GCU sophomore Jonathan Rom went 53.59 to place second in the 100 breaststroke. The mark is worthy of an NCAA B cut.

The Lopes took the top two spots in the women's 100 breaststroke. Junior Maria Brunlehner set a school and WAC record of 1:00.18 to claim the gold medal. The time also qualifies as an NCAA B cut. Senior Raphaela Nakashima took second with a strong time of 1:01.56.

In the men's 100 backstroke, sophomore Alex Volkov swam an NCAA B cut time of 46.23 seconds to win the WAC top spot.

In the women's 100 backstroke, GCU was victorious with Martinez Moreno's scorching time of 53.75 seconds (NCAA B cut).

In the men's platform diving, GCU picked up points from seniors Reece Robles (eighth) and Isaac Poole (fourth) in their final WAC Championship events.

The Lopes took third in the men's 400 medley relay thanks to Alex Volkov, Rom, Sam Jennings and Guillermo Carrey Bosque racing to a time of 3:11.08.

The women's 400 medley relay closed the evening on a high note with a school-record, gold-winning time of 3:37.93. The squad was constructed of decorated WAC swimmers in graduate Briana Rittenbach, Nakashima, Martinez Moreno and Brunlehner.

Friday's results can be found here.

Day 2

The Grand Canyon swimming and diving team closed Day 2 of the WAC Championships with a strong share of podium appearances Thursday.

The Lopes men got on the podium early with their second-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which included freshman Guillermo Carrey Bosque, sophomore Alex Volkov, sophomore Eli Cohen and junior Sam Wittmer. The team won silver with their time of 1 minute, 19.23 seconds.

GCU senior Isaac Poole placed third in the 1-meter diving competition with a school-record score of 377.75 points.

Lopes sophomore Jonathan Rom finished the men's 200 individual medley in third. The thrilling race came down to the touch, where Rom recorded a time of 1:46.25 for bronze.

GCU junior Maria Brunlehner went 1:59.58 to take first in the 200 individual medley.

After starting the night with a relay silver, Carrey Bosque earned an NCAA B cut by way of his 50 freestyle final. The freshman from Spain went 19.61 seconds to claim bronze.

The Lopes now have set 10 marks that ranked in various events' all-time top-10 lists with the total of lifetime bests climbing to 28.

Results can be found here.

Day 1

The Grand Canyon swimming and diving team started out the WAC Championships with an attention-getting, record-setting victory in the 200-yard medley relay Thursday.

With only relays occurring on the conference meet's first night of swimming events, the second-year host Pharr Natatorium had a thrill of excitement to it.

The Lopes led off the night with the women's medley relay team of graduate Briana Rittenbach, senior Raphaela Nakashima, sophomore Paula Martinez Moreno and junior Maria Brunlehner. The team touched with a scorching time of 1 minute, 38.86 seconds. The first-place finish was a GCU school record and WAC record. Last year's Lopes squad won with a time of 1:39.13.

The Lopes men opened the evening with a second-place finish in the medley relay.

The GCU men's 800 freestyle relay placed third in 6:24.95. The squad included Grzegorz Wanat, Vitaly Kostin, Yigit Eksioglu and Eli Cohen.

In the men's 3-meter diving competition, senior Isaac Poole placed fourth with 346.6 points with senior Reece Robles finishing eighth with 294.25 points.

After the relays, most of the team took the opportunity to do time trials. Four Lopes had College Swimming Coaches Association of America national A cuts, earning them direct invitations to the CSCAA National Invitational Championships in mid-March.

Lopes sophomore Jonathan Rom claimed an NCAA B cut in the 200 breaststroke with his time of 1:54.13.

Daniel Volkov went 22.34 seconds in the 50 backstroke. Harper Houk had a strong swim in the 100 individual medley with a time of 49.67 seconds.

On the women's side, Kailee Patters went 57.86 in the 100 individual medley with junior Fruzsi Macsok at 57.09.

The Lopes had 13 lifetime bests set in the time trials on Wednesday evening.

Full results from Wednesday can be found here.