Post-season swimming is going strong at the Rockwall ISD Aquatic Center where Day Two of the CSCAA Collegiate Classic presented by Speedo was dominated by Grand Canyon on both the women’s and men’s sides. (Live results available here.)
Tuesday began with the 200 medley relay, which the women of Grand Canyon won in 1:41.94. The foursome included Iryna Glavnyk, Vangelina Draganova, Rebecca Coan, and Hannah Kastigar. Incarnate Word (Dariia Beilousova, Celeste Morgen, Alona Kyselova, and Lana Nguyen) were only .06 off their season-best with a second-place finish of 1:42.96, ahead of BYU (Ashlee Spindler, Anna Dahl, Haley Bertoldo, and Alora Foliaki) who touched in 1:44.71.
The men’s relay also went to Grand Canyon, with Iegor Lytvenok, Youssef El Kamash, Illya Glazunov, and Jacob Lambros coming to the wall in 1:27.56. BYU (Rainer Ng, Levi Jensen, Hayden Palmer, and Evan Berger) placed second in 1:29.97, while Western Kentucky (Chris Goodman, TJ Bland, John Smith, and Brennan Elsas) rounded out the podium in 1:31.42.
Grand Canyon sophomore Kastigar followed her 200 IM win from Day One with a matching gold medal in the 400 IM on Day Two. Kastigar lowered her own school record by nearly 2 seconds, finishing in 4:10.77. Second place went to Rice’s Kaitlyn Swinney with 4:24.50, while Kastigar’s teammate, freshman Yara Fakhry, came in third with a season-best 4:24.53. The men’s race was an exciting battle among eventual-winner Lytvenok of Grand Canyon, David Moore of Incarnate Word, and BYU’s Palmer. The trio finished with 3:48.74, 3:49.61, and 3:49.65, respectively.
In the 100 fly, BYU picked up a first with Bertoldo’s 54.21. Rice freshman Kiley Beall was runner-up, posting a season-best time of 54.72. Third place went to junior Coan of the Lopes in 55.27. In the men’s contest, Grand Canyon’s Glazunov won a tight race, going a season-best by 3.4 second with 47.72. Western Kentucky freshman Ryan Burcham clocked a 48.53 for second. The Lopes’ Fedir Bolychev (49.36) got his hand to the wall just before WKU’s Smith and BYU’s Ng, who tied for fourth with 49.55.
Incarnate Word freshman Kyselova took gold in the 200 free, coming in at 1:49.13, just about a half-second off her top time from the season. BYU’s Lauren Taylor dropped 1.1 seconds from her seed time and finished second with 1:49.93; that marked her first foray into the sub-1:50 zone. Rice junior Taylor Armstrong placed third in 1:50.77. After his second-place finish in the 50 yesterday, Grand Canyon sophomore Lambros led the field in the men’s 200 free with 1:38.29. Right behind him, and touching nearly together, were his classmate Mazen El Kamash (1:38.60) and UIW’s Connor Hennessy (1:38.62).
Lopes freshman Draganova won the women’s 100 breast in a close contest with 1:03.38. UIW’s Daria Makieieva just out-touched BYU’s Riley Buer for second, 1:03.86 to 1:03.94. Buer logged a season-best time by .4. On the men’s side it was WKU senior Bland with the win, putting up the only sub-54 in the field (53.42). BYU freshman Jensen (54.63) was runner-up, just a tick ahead of GCU’s Youssef El Kamash (54.85).
Grand Canyon sophomore Glavnyk won the 100 back with 54.01. Rice’s Beall (55.27) and BYU’s Taylor (56.11) came in second and third. The Cougars’ Ng came back from his fourth-place finish in the fly to win the men’s back handily; he touched in 48.13, ahead of the Lopes’ Trent Trump (49.99) and Jack Feely (50.25).
Tuesday’s session concluded with the 800 free relays, in which Grand Canyon (Kastigar, Petya Dimova, Celine Schoemans, and Glavnyk) won the women’s race in 7:26.05 and the men’s (with Lytvenok, Mazen El Kamash, Stanislav Saiko, and Lambros) in 6:39.03.
