DENVER - Grand Canyon's legor Lytvenok and Air Force Academy's Nathanael Zillweger have been named Western Athletic Conference Swimmer and Diver of the week, respectively, for Oct. 19-25.
Lytvenok, a senior from Kryyiy Rig, Ukraine took home five 1st place times in the meet against Seattle U, leading his team to a first place finish. His time in the 200 IM has a CollegeSwimming.com performance score of 804 and is an NCAA B qualifying time. He currently has the fastest 200 IM time in DI so far this season (from a prior meet). Lytvenok's times in the 100 free (44.70) and 200 back (1:47.12) is currently the fastest in the WAC this season.
Zillweger, a senior from Phoenix (Willow Canyon HS) won both the one-meter and three-meter events in a multi-team meet held at the Academy. The points he earned helped lead the team to wins over conference rival North Dakota, as well as Colorado Mines and Colorado Mesa. He scored 280.10 on the 1-meter and 301.15 on the 3-meter.
Other swimmer nominees: Kevin Fanter of Air Force won three events at a multi-team meet held at the Academy, winning the 100 breast stroke, 200 breast stroke and 200 IM. The points he earned helped lead the team to win over conference rival North Dakota, as well as Colorado Mines and Colorado Mesa. CSU Bakersfield's Lovre Soric led the ‘Runners with impressive swims against No. 11 USC. The sophomore from Croatia posted a third-place finish in the 200 back (1:51.16) and finished fourth in the 200 free (1:43.43). He also helped the 200 medley relay team finish third behind the Trojans in a time of 1:33.64. North Dakota's Jacob Wielinski won the 1000 free by over 15 seconds last weekend against Air Force (9:38.41). He also finished second in the 500 free with a time of 4:47.40. Seattle U's Austin Barnard began his collegiate career with back-to-back victories in the 1000 freestyle as the Redhawks competed in two dual meets against Grand Canyon University in Arizona. Dillon Virva from UNLV swept the 50 free in two races against Pac-12 opponents Arizona and Arizona State over the weekend, and also helped the Rebels' 400 free relay to a first place swim against UA, and the 200 free relay to a win at ASU. His 50 free time is ranked 27th in the nation and first in the WAC. The 200 free relay time is the ninth-fastest in the nation this year.
Other diver nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Tyler Greenwald took first in the 3-meter on Friday with a season-best score of 301.58. One year ago, Greenwald was only one of five WAC men's divers to break the 300-point plateau in the event. The junior also posted a season-best score of 256.65 on the 1-meter board for a third place finish behind USC's divers. Sam Howard of North Dakota finished second on both the 1-meter (254.40) and 3-meter (268.40) dives.