Washington State vs. Grand Canyon
- November 12th, 2021
- Pullman, WA
- SCY dual meet
- Team scores
- WSU 126 GCU 74
- Final results
The Washington State Cougars easily handled fellow Division I foe Grand Canyon at home on Friday, winning 126-74. That marks the third dual meet win on the season for the Cougars, which included a historic victory over Arizona last month. The event lineup was notably unique, including the 200 medley and free relays, along with the 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000 free and the 200 fly, back, breast and IM. No 100s of stroke were contested.
Washington State was led by a pair of double winners in senior Taylor McCoy and freshman Angela Di Palo. McCoy, a homegrown product of Pullman, started her day with a win in the 200 IM in 2:05.97. Grand Canyon’s Maria Brunlehner held the early lead at the 50, but McCoy used a 31.12 backstroke to take the lead and never looked back. McCoy continued to demonstrate her backstroke prowess a few events later when she returned to win the 200 back by nearly 2 seconds in 2:01.75. Both of her swims were off her season bests of 2:04.38 in the IM and 2:01.25 in the back, both of which came at Washington State’s tri meet with USC and UC Santa Barbara.
Also winning two events for the Cougars was freshman Angela Di Palo, who won both the 200 and 100 free. In her first event of the day, the Afragola, Italy native used the field’s fastest 3rd 50 to take the 200 free in 1:54.87, a full second ahead of teammate Keiana Fountaine. Di Palo later returned to win the 100 free in 51.39, three quarters of a second ahead of Grand Canyon’s Maria Brunlehner. Di Palo’s season bests stand at 1:50.38 in the 200 and 50.73 in the 100.
Defending Pac 12 50 free champion Chloe Larson won her signature event as well for the Cougars, touching first in the 50 free in 23.65. Larson, who qualified for the semi-finals at last summer’s US Olympic Trials, holds a season best of 22.96 from the WSU-USC-UCSB tri meet last month.
Leading the way for Grand Canyon was freshman Aleksandra Wegrzynowska. A native of Wroclaw, Poland, easily won the 1000 free in her first event of the day, touching first in 10:41.83, nearly 12 seconds ahead of Washington State’s Josie Liebzeit. Wegrzynowska completed her tough double by narrowly winning the 200 in 2:05.75, just outtouching Washington State’s Ilaria Moro, who touched in 2:05.81. Both of those swims stand as season bests for Wegrzynowska.
Other individual event winners:
- 500 free: Noelle Harvey (WSU): 5:05.09
- 200 breast: Mackenzie Duarte (WSU): 2:20.66
Following the win, Washington State now sits at 3-3 in dual meets on the season, while Grand Canyon is now 5-5 on the year. Washington State will head to Houston this week for the Phil Hansel Invite, while Grand Canyon will be off from competition until December 2nd-4th, when they head east to the Miami (OH) invite.
