Through day three of the Western Athletic Conference Championships, the Northern Arizona women and UNLV men lead with one night to go in San Antonio. While the Northern Arizona women lead by 95 points the men of Wyoming and Air Force look to over take UNLV on the final night of WAC championships. Let’s catch you up on Day 3
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
Women’s 400 IM
Grand Canyon sophomore Hannah Kastigar (4:12.42) set the tone early well ahead of the field at the 200 mark. That time is 2-tenths under the invited time of last year’s NCAA championships, we will have to wait to see how things shake out tonight at last chance meets across the country for her NCAA berth. Northern Arizona kept their hold on the team title with Kendall Brown, (4:19.71) Monica Pruett (4:22.63) and Melanie Harris (4:24.44) touching 2nd through 4th. Kastigar’s teammate Yara Fakhry finished 5th for Grand Canyon touching at 4:28.30.
Men’s 400 IM
Iegor Lytvenok of Grand Canyon (3:43.52) took down reigning champion Ryan Nelson (3:47.63) of Wyoming in the 400 IM for the conference title. In the process Lytvenok broke the pool, WAC, and WAC meet record for the 400 IM and more than likely punched his ticket to NCAA’s.
Wyoming scored major points in the long IM with Ryan Ball (3:50.33), Jordan Turner (3:52.45), and Wade Nelson (3:52.82) placing 3rd through 5th for the cowboys. Hannon Daigler of UNLV (3:53.06) and Air Force’s Andrew Faciszewski (3:55.71) and Kevin Jackson (3:58.62) rounded out the top 8.
Women’s 100 Butterfly
Northern Arizona freshman Alina Staffeldt (53.86) tracked down New Mexico State’s Lennert Dorottya (54.11) the last 25 to win the 100 Butterfly. Behind by 6-tenths at the 75 wall Staffeldt charged home setting a new NAU school record. Rebecca Coan (54.94) of Grand Canyon held off Idaho’s Jamie Sterbis (55.02) to collect the bronze medal. Erin Grabanski of North Dakota (55.39) and Jannah Gonnenschein of NMSU (55.67) touched 5th and 6th.
Men’s 100 Butterfly
UNLV junior Dillon Virva (47.06) out-touched Air Force senior Ryan Dunne (47.38) to keep UNLV’s lead in tack. Fedir Bolychev (47.41) of Grand Canyon ran out of pool the final 50 and touched third. UNLV’s depth was present in the 100 fly with Henrique Machado (47.78) leading the pack touching 4th, 5th and 7th.
Women’s 200 Freestyle
Bakersfield’s Kelsey Lange(1:48.49) closed on Amina Gummesson (1:48.95) and over took the lead at the 175 winning the women’s 200 freestyle. Idaho senior Rachael Millet (1:49.67) was the only other woman under 1:50 in the final touching 3rd.
Men’s 200 Freestyle
Adam Kalms (1:34.39) could not match his 200 Freestyle from last years championships but still led the field from start to finish out touching Tom Paco-Pedroni (1:34.78) of UNLV. Kalm’s current time and Paco-Pedroni’s lead off from Wednesday (1:34.16) has both swimmers under last year’s invited 200 free time.
Bakersfield senior Mitchell Huxhold (1:36.30), Grand Canyon sophomore Jacob Lambros (1:36.34) over took UNLV’s Samuel Lameunardie (1:36.84) the final 50 placing 3rd and 4th in the final.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke
Jessica Legge of New Mexico St touched first (1:01.74) taking out the first 50 a whole second ahead of the rest of the field. Seattle’s Blaise Wittenauer-Lee (1:02.63) and Vangelina Draganova (1:02.64) went to the wire touching just ahead of Northern Arizona’s Urte Kazakeviciute (1:02.90). Underclassmen Steph Fry (1:03.36) of North Dakota and Dylana Milobar (1:03.49) of Bakersfield placed 5th and 6th respectively in the championship heat.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke
Air Force junior Michael Barnosky knew he would have a shot at the WAC record after his 23.59 breaststroke split from night 1. That chance became a reality by the slimmest of margins as Barnosky touched the wall at 53.11, a one hundredth under David Szele record set at last year’s championships. Barnosky should get the nod to NCAA’s with his time from last night.
Kyle Scalise (54.41) of Wyoming, Bakersfield junior Brett Emery (54.60), and Grand Canyon sophomore Youssef El Kamash (54.66) finished 2nd through 4th in the breaststroke final. Freshmen Boris Kulizhikov (54.89), Mantas Auruskevicius, (55.06) and Kyle White (55.28) took 5th through 7th in the final leaving the future bright for the breaststroke core of the WAC.
Women’s 100 Backstroke
Iryna Glavnyk of Grand Canyon won the 100 backstroke touching at 53.63. Valeria Mihhailova (55.57) from Northern Colorado placed second touching just ahead of Northern Arizona’s Sara Lenhoff (55.59. Northern Arizona joined New Mexico State in placing two in the top 8 with NMSU junior Cassandra Rupp (56.74) touching 4th with Northern Arizona sophomore Jori Lindquist (57.70) placing 6th.
Men’s 100 Backstroke
UnLV junior Henrique Machado was unable to win his race against his record from last year’s championshps. Machado (47.08) essentially in a race by himself beat our Air Force’s Devon Davis (48.80) and teammate Caio Hanaoka Dini (49.16) to repeat at the WAC conference champion.
Women’s Platform Diving
Northern Colorado sophomore Savanna Meadows held her top seed from prelims winning the platform with a score of 222.80. New Mexico State Lauren Reifel placed second with a score of 215.10 and Meadow’s teammate Kelsey Smith joining her on the podium with a score of.205.65. Northern Arizona divers scored big points placing 4th, 7th, 8th, and 9th on the platform.
Women’s 400 Medley Relay
Grand Canyon (3:40.22) powered by New Mexico State (3:41.03) with an impressive 49.87 freestyle split by Hannah Kastigar. Northern Arizona (3:44.58) placed 3rd picking up the bronze.
Men’s 400 Medley Relay
UNLV (3:09.84) just missed their WAC record set last year beating out Air Force (3:11.69) and Grand Canyon (3:12.24). UNLV also just missed the A cut with that swim, will be interesting to see if they time trial it sometime next week.