Grand Canyon v. Northern Colorado, Arizona Christian, Ottawa
- December 9, 2023
- Phoenix, Ariz.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: GCU Athletics
The Grand Canyon swimming and diving team completed their first home meet of the season Saturday.
The Lopes women led the charge by taking down Northern Colorado in a battle where GCU scored 173 team points and UNC scored 125 points.
“This was a really good win for our women,” Lopes head coach Steve Schaffer said. “We had a good, but not great meet last week at the Miami Invitational, and we wanted to see how the team would respond to the challenge of a strong opponent this week.”
The Lopes responded by having a team total of five pool records at Fr Edward A. Reese Aquatic Center.
“Northern Colorado is a very well coached team and were ranked 2nd the WAC, just ahead of us,” Schaffer said. “We really stepped up and raced very well today, and as the women like to say, they understood the assignment.”
Prior to this weekend, Northern Colorado was unbeaten in WAC play.
Sophomore Paula Martinez Moreno took first in the 200-yard butterfly with a pool record time of 1 minute 59.26 seconds. The previous pool record was also held by Martinez Moreno almost a year ago to the day, but Saturday’s time was nearly a second faster.
Senior Raphaela Nakashima also set a pool record of 1:01.04 in the 100 breaststroke. The new record was only 0.01 seconds off from the school record time.
To start the day, the 200 medley relay also had a school record time with their first place finish time of 1:40.66. The team included graduate student Briana Rittenbach, Nakashima, Martinez Moreno, and junior Maria Brunlehner.
“The men had a chance to either swim off events or to try to improve on the event they swam last week and we had a lot of very fast swims today,” Schaffer said. “We got a lot of good insights in how we need to manage the unloading process for everyone leading into the WAC Championships. ”
Sophomore Alex Volkov broke the men’s 100 individual medley record when he finished first place with a time of 49.03 seconds. The previous record was 50.25 seconds.
Jonathan Rom also broke the men’s 200 breaststroke record with a time of 1:55.41. The sophomore’s first place finish was over two and a half seconds faster than the previous pool best time.
“The meets these past two weeks have set us up well as we transition to the second half of the season and the WAC Championships,” Schaffer said. “We have made a very good start, but we still have a lot of work to do if we are going to accomplish our goals for the end of the season.”
The Lopes next full-team competition will be January 6th at Arizona State.
Full results from Saturday can be found here.
Courtesy: OUAZ Athletics
A multitude of OUAZ records were broken on Saturday when the swim team took on GCU, Northern Colorado, Arizona Christian and Arizona State at Brophy Prep in Phoenix.
There were a total of 11 school records broken or established during the meet – three for the women’s team and the remaining eight for the men.
Jonathan Cowin, who was OUAZ’s lone national qualifier last season, had a season- and school-best time in the 100 backstroke (51.28 seconds), which also ranks as the 16th-best time in the NAIA in the discipline.
Karson Kolberg bested the school record by almost two full seconds in the 100 Breaststroke, swimming the distance in 1:02.03.
The 200 medley relay team of Cowin, Reuben Dobson, Jakob Rooney, and Konnor Kolberg shaved almost seven seconds off the previous school’s best, taking 1:36.75 seconds to swim the race.
Kolberg recorded his, and school’s, best time in the 200 IM with a 1:59.40 time.
Dobson moved up to 25th in the NAIA rankings and atop of the school record book in the 100 butterfly with a personal best time of 50.82 seconds.
Kayden Brendel established three school records on the day. The records in the 100 Butterfly (1:02.83 time), 100 Backstroke (1:06.20), and 400 IM (5:16.20) all have her name on them.
Courtesy: ACU Athletics
Phoenix, Ariz.- Swimming for the final time before taking their mid-season break, Arizona Christian did a good job of trimming times in an event hosted by Grand Canyon on Saturday.
Event Details
- Scoring teams: Grand Canyon- 670.7, Northern Colorado- 644.4, Arizona Cristian- 458.1, OUAZ- 439.3
- Location: Brophy Preparatory High School, Phoenix, AZ
Top 7 Finishes/ Top 5 Relay/ NAIA Cuts/ Team Records
- 100 Breast- Audrey Washburn– 1:09.48 (7th)
- 50 Free- Courtney Pequin– 25.72 (6th)
- 50 Free- Lyndsey Brueckner– 25.98 (7th)
- 100 Fly- Eva Garraux– 57.90 (7th)
- 200 Free Relay- Callie Drefs, Pequin, Garraux, Brueckner- 1:42.45 (5th)
Coach Hering’s Perspective
“Practice paid off with our women’s team swimming many seasonal best times today at the Brophy pool. The ladies dropped 2.4 seconds in the 200 medley relay. Eva dropped 1.1 seconds in her 100 fly. Callie and Abbey Lair both had season best times in the 200 and 100 free. Robin Abrams dropped 18.8 seconds in her mile swim for a season best.”
“Coach Rob and I are pleased with swims today and we are looking at great training over break and next semester to dial them in even more!“
Next On The Schedule
The Firestorm will return to the water on January 5 when they head to Florida.
Phoenix, Ariz.- Going head-to-head with Grand Canyon and OUAZ, Arizona Christian claimed second on Saturday. The Firestorm wrapped up the pre-break part of their season.
Three school records fell as Edgar Betancourt broke two and CJ Trettel broke one.
Event Details
- Scoring teams: Grand Canyon- 676.9, OUAZ- 485.7, Arizona Christian- 480.9 (ACU won on head-to-head points v OUAZ)
- Location: Brophy Preparatory High School, Phoenix, AZ
Top 6 Finishes/ Top 3 Relays/ NAIA Cuts/ Team Records
- 1650 Free- Trettel- 17:26.29 (2nd/School Record)
- 200 Free- Noah Froese– 1:46.58 (6th)
- 100 Back- Lance Kersey– 1:01.62 (5th)
- 100 Breast- Kadin van der Lingen– 59.02 (5th)
- 200 Fly- Betancourt- 1:57.23 (2nd/School Record)
- 50 Free- Boaz Hering– 24.36 (2nd)
- 50 Free- Mark Sierra– 25.04 (4th)
- 100 Free- Trettel- 50.18 (4th)
- 100 Free- Kersey- 53.58 (5th)
- 200 Breast- Josh Brady– 2:24.29 (4th)
- 500 Free- Betancourt- 4:51.58 (3rd/School Record)
- 100 Fly- van der Lingen- 52.25 (5th)
Coach Hering’s Perspective
“The Firestorm men team broke three school records today. Betancourt broke his own 200 fly and 500 free school records. Trettel established a new mile record. The men’s 200 medley relay dropped 2.2 seconds and 1.4 seconds in the 200 free relay. The men had many seasonal best times today and good weather in their favor.”
“It is good to see training paying off and Coach Rob and I are looking at further refinement.“
Next On The Schedule
January 5 will be the next time ACU competes as they travel to Florida.
Courtesy: Northern Colorado Athletics
PHOENIX, Ariz. – Northern Colorado women’s swimming and diving dropped a pair of matches at Northern Arizona and Grand Canyon over the weekend.
The Bears fell at Northern Arizona 189-111 Friday before suffering a 173-125 setback at Grand Canyon Saturday.
UNC claimed nine individual titles over the weekend, led by Lily Mayer setting the 10th-fastest time (4:29.52) in program history to win the 400-yard IM.
Maria Erokhina won a pair of events, claiming the 100-yard breaststroke at NAU in a time of 1:02.76 and the 200 at GCU in a time of 2:13.96. She swam faster in the 100-yard breaststroke at GCU, placing second with a time of 1:02.38 at GCU. Erokhina added silver in the 100-yard IM 57.77.
Kyra Rabess won the 1000-yard freestyle in a time of 10:34.03 at NAU and added a pair of triumphs at GCU. She won the 1,650-yard freestyle in a time of 17:00.38 and the 500-yard free in 4:55.92.
Payten Irwin won the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 2:05.02. Katelyn Bergin recorded a time of 54.66 in the 100-yard butterfly, placing second.
In diving action, UNC swept both events at GCU. Madison Berg won the 1-meter springboard with a 253.28. Kyriana Chambo posted a 267.3, winning the 3-meter springboard competition.
UP NEXT
UNC steps away from competition for a month before hosting Air Force at Butler-Hancock Pool Jan. 12, 2024, at 4 p.m.
