WAC Championships on deck for Lopes

Wednesday, February 26

Houston, Texas

Grand Canyon

WAC Championships

Photo by: Nathan Peters

2/25/2025 5:00:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

Conference returns to Houston for 1st time in 3 years

By: Nathan Peters

The Grand Canyon men's and women's swimming and diving teams will compete in the WAC Championships beginning Wednesday and running through Saturday in Houston at the Campus Recreation & Wellness Center Natatorium.

The first event will be the men's 1-meter preliminary competition, which begins at 9:30 a.m. (Phoenix time). The women's divers will compete at 12:45 p.m. in the 3-meter. The swimming finals will begin at 5 p.m.

This is the first year the Western Athletic Conference is hosting the championships in Houston since the 2021-22 season.

The Lopes men last won the WAC Championship in 2018-19, a season where the conference meet was also held in Houston.

Last season, the Lopes final night was an exciting one, Maria Brunlehner claimed her third of three individual events where she won gold.

In the women's platform diving, 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 exhilarating 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 record time of 2:52.04 to claim second. The team included Grezgorz Wanat, Alex Volkov and Eli Cohen, as well as the 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.

Throughout the season, GCU has had WAC Men's Swimmer of the Week award-winners Batu Servi and Harper Houk while Men's Diver of the Week winners included Omar Elsayed.

The Lopes' WAC Women's Swimmer of the Week winners were Paula Martinez Moreno, Maria Brunlehner, Raphaela Nakashima, Aleksandra Wegrzynowska while women's Diver of the Week winners included Lacey Neighbor.

For links to the live streams, schedules, and live results please visit the championships page here.

2025 WAC SWIMMING & DIVING PRE-CHAMPIONSHIP POLLS

2025 WAC Women's Swimming & Diving Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll

Rank Team
1. Northern Arizona
2. Grand Canyon
3. New Mexico State

2025 WAC Men's Swimming & Diving Pre-Championship Coaches' Poll

Rank Team
1. UNLV
2. Grand Canyon
3. California Baptist