San Diego State Reclaims Mountain West Title

2022 MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONSHIPS

DAY 1 RESULTS

DAY 2 RESULTS

DAY 3 RESULTS

DAY 4 RESULTS

Team Scores

  1. San Diego State – 1541.5
  2. Nevada – 1277.5
  3. UNLV – 1249
  4. Wyoming – 888.5
  5. Colorado State – 760
  6. Fresno State – 691.5
  7. Air Force – 678
  8. San Jose State – 597.5
  9. New Mexico -1378.5

After UNLV ended San Diego State’s 2-year win streak in 2021, SDSU is back with a championship record 1,541.5 points, beating their 2020 record of 1,463.5 points.

This marks the sixth overall time SDSU has won the meet.

Nevada’s Caitlyn McHugh kicked off the night with a win in the 1650. Her time of 16:31.33 is a comeback of sorts from last year, when she came in 2nd in the event. She also defeated last year’s winner, Teneka Ash, who came in 2nd with a time of 16:35.32.

Both were significantly faster than last year, when Ash won in 16:44.35 and McHugh took 2nd in 16:53.02. McHugh is the first Nevada athlete to win the event.

Fresno State junior Athena Clayson is on track to go 4-for-4 in her college career in the 200 back–the junior won her third consecutive 200 back title on Saturday with her time of 1:55.30. That time is over a second faster than her winning time last season. 

She was closely followed by SDSU’s Alex Roberts (1:55.67) and Wyoming’s Katelyn Blattner (1:55.92). All three top finishers earned NCAA B cut times.

Nevada senior Kristina Schneider successfully defended her title in the 100 free, winning the event in 49.65. Unlike last year, Schneider dropped from her prelims time, holding off Mia Ryan’s 2nd-place 49.71, marking just 0.06 seconds between first and second. Kristina Friedrichs rounded out the podium with her time of 49.74, also within a hair’s breadth of first and second.

In the 200 breast, Donna dePolo missed the Mountain West record by .01 with her time of 2:08.31. The two-time conference champion defeated 2nd-place Klara Thormalm’s 2:09.73, but Thormalm still has the conference record at 2:08.30.

Blanka Bokros won UNLV’s first title in the 200 fly since 2002, when Julie Unrau won the event. Her time of 1:57.34 is the 4th-fastest in Mountain West history, and she was able to secure the win by crushing the last 100. Zsofia Muzsnay, who led the first 100, came in 2nd at 1:57.93.

For the second time in the past three years, SDSU won the 400 free relay. The team of Ryan, Samantha Geyer, Kristina Murphy, and Thormalm posted a total time of 3:17.45, the fifth-fastest time in Mountain West history.

UNLV came in 2nd with a total time of 3:19.12, the tenth-fastest time in Mountain West history. The team consisted of Malia Fernandez, Katsiaryna Afanasyeva, Ava Haase, and Schneider.

In diving, Melissa Mirafuentes Santilla defended her platform title with a score of 328.20. The top 12 divers posted NCAA A-standard scores.

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Lisa
2 years ago

would be nice to have a shot of the SDSU ladies who earned this year’s conference title leading this article rather than one of last year’s winners 😔

David
2 years ago

SDSU is invisible to kids from the San Diego area. What a wasted opportunity year after year. Club and High School kids never get a chance to swim at SDSU, or USD and UCSD for that matter. I have heard the reason is that they want to charge a fortune to use their facility. Facilities that taxpayers paid for. If kids got a chance to swim in the college pools at some point they may consider swimming there.

Sam B
Reply to  David
2 years ago

do you mean the pools are invisible?

Jim
Reply to  David
2 years ago

4 swimmers/divers are from San diego on the current roster and 13 total are from california. That is more than half the team. Know swimmers who never swam in college pools and are swimming in major D1 programs.