Lopes men claim 3rd, women 10th at CSCAA national meet

Monday, March 11

Flagstaff, Ariz.

Grand Canyon

NCAA Zone E Diving Championships

Photo by: Deb Schaffer

Lopes men claim 3rd, women 10th at CSCAA national meet

3/17/2024 5:35:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Volkov shines with school record, meet record, 2 individual wins

By: Nathan Peters

OCALA, Fla. –The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming teams closed out the season with strong performances in the College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America National Invitational Championship this weekend.

The Lopes' impressive times against some of the top programs in the country began in the 200-yard freestyle relay. The men's squad of Eli Cohen, Alex Volkov, Yigit Eksioglu and Guillermo Carrey Bosque put up a fourth-place time of 1 minute, 19.58 seconds.

The men continued the fast start when Volkov won the final of the 50 backstroke with a time of 21.37 seconds. The sophomore from Israel had a thrilling week by then matching the CSCAA meet record in the 100 backstroke with a time of 45.67 seconds to claim first. In addition, Volkov closed the week with a school-record time of 48.34 in the 100 individual medley.

On the women's side, GCU's Maria Brunlehner placed fourth in the 50-yard breaststroke with a time of 28.23. Later, Brunlehner went 49.08 seconds for second place in the 100 freestyle.

The men's 400 medley relay comprised of Volkov, Jonathan Rom, Cohen and Carrey Bosque went 3:10.54 to claim third.

Paula Martinez Moreno shined in the women's 100 butterfly with a second-place finish of 53.07 seconds.

The Lopes finished first in the 800 freestyle relay thanks to Cohen, Vitaly Kostin, Eksioglu and Grzegorz Wanat finishing in 6:26.81.

GCU set another school record when Maria Chatzi went 54.73 to take second in the 100 individual medley.

Cohen, the sophomore from Israel, placed third (43.27 seconds) with Carrey Bosque, the freshman Spaniard placing fifth (43.77).

Rom claimed second in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 1:55.35 which was less than a second behind TCU's first-place finisher.

In the 46th event of the meet, the GCU men's 400 freestyle relay (Volkov, Wanat, Cohen and Carrey Bosque) went 2:53.10.

The Lopes men finished the competition with 558.5 points to take third while the women finished 10th with 321 points.

GCU divers concluded their season at the Zone E Diving Championship in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Lopes seniors Isaac Poole and Reece Robles and junior Shiori Bak represented GCU. Bak competed in the platform, Robles in the 1- and 3-meter events, and Poole and each of the three.

Full meet results can be found here.