UNLV men top Air Force by just 10 for WAC title, Northern Arizona women win

2015 WAC Swimming and Diving Championships

• Dates: February 25th- Feburary 28th (Co-ed)
• Location: Palo Alto Aquatic Center San Antonio, Texas
• Defending Champion: Women: Northern Arizona Men: UNLV
• Live Results
• Live Video: TBD
• Championship Central

Men’s Meet

Leading by just 6 heading into the final night, UNLV won three events to cap off their 2015 WAC title. Junior Henrique Machado was most notable, breaking a conference record with his second individual win of the meet.

Machado, who won the 100 back on Friday, powered away with the 200 back title Saturday night, going 1:43.41 to break the WAC record and the WAC Championship meet record, both by .07.

Also winning for the Rebels was freshman Ari Cohen, who broke the WAC meet record with a 1:45.17 in the 200 fly. Cohen touched out teammate Balint Batka (1:45.32) for the title.

UNLV narrowly led Air Force by just 2 points with one event to go, but iced their title by winning the 400 free relay to close the night. Tom Paco-Pedroni, Dillon Virva, Forrest Beesly and Samuel Lameynardie combined to go 2:53.05, smashing a pool record. Lameynardie was a quick 42.91 on his anchor leg, and Paco-Pedroni led off in 43.29.

Three more athletes completed dual-event titles for the meet on Saturday night. First up was Cal State – Bakersfield’s Mitchell Huxhold, who added the 1650 title to his 500 free win earlier in the week. Huxhold went 14:56.84, crushing the field by 18 seconds.

At the other end of the yardage spectrum, Wyoming’s Adam Kalms won the shortest event of the night, the 100 free. His 43.23 topped UNLV’s Paco-Pedroni by two tenths, giving Kalms a second win to combine with his 200 free title.

Finally, Air Force junior Michael Barnosky completed a sweep of the breaststroke events, going 1:56.89 to win the 200 breaststroke by over two seconds.

Air Force also took the platform dive title with Dominic Vallejo, who scored 330.90 points for a new WAC and WAC meet record.

Final Team Scores

1. UNLV – 715.5
2. Air Force – 705.5
3. Wyoming – 691.5
4. Grand Canyon – 544.5
5. CSUB – 370.5
6. North Dakota – 257.5
7. Seattle – 191

Women’s Meet

Things were much less dramatic on the women’s side, with Northern Arizona charging away with the team title on day 3 by over 100 points despite not winning an event. NAU’s top finish was senior Caitlin Wright, who took second in the 1650 free.

Winning that event was Northern Colorado’s Carleigh Barrett, who went 16:41.44 to top Wright by five seconds.

Finishing out a three-win weekend was Grand Canyon’s Hannah Kastigar. The 200/400 IM winner added the 200 fly on Saturday, going 1:57.49 to blow out the field by three seconds.

Grand Canyon’s Iryna Glavnyk also earned multiple wins over the week. She completed a sweep of the backstrokes with a 1:54.82 that crushed the 200 backstroke field in yet another blowout win on night 4.

Cal State Bakersfield junior Kelsey Lange won twice on Saturday night. First, she paced the 100 free in 50.59, a narrow touchout of CSUB teammate Paola Hernandez. That added to Lange’s 200 free win a day earlier.

Then at the end of the meet, Lange and Hernandez joined forces to help the Roadrunners win the 400 free relay. Hernandez led off in 50.90, the exact same time she went in her individual 100, and Lange anchored in 50.21 to help the team go 3:22.82 for the win. Also on that relay were Lauren Kaufman and Nicolette Goncalves.

The other individual winner on the night was New Mexico State’s Jessica Legge, who swept the breaststrokes to help her team finish second overall. Legge went 2:15.06 to win by about a half-second over Northern Arizona’s Urte Kazakeviciute in the 200 breast Saturday night.

Final Team Scores

1. Northern Arizona – 666
2. New Mexico State – 539
3. Northern Colorado – 447.5
4. Grand Canyon – 447
5. CSUB – 438
6. Idaho – 422
7. North Dakota – 361
8. Seattle – 270.5