DENVER - Grand Canyon's Iryna Glavnyk and Northern Arizona's Alexa Geiger have been named Western Athletic Conference Swimmer and Diver of the week, respectively, for Nov. 30-Dec 6.
Glavnyk, a junior from Kiev, Ukraine (All-Republic Higher Specialized School in Physical Education) competed in the USA Swimming AT&T Winter Nationals, a long course meet. Against some of the top swimmers in the country/world, Iryna earned finals appearances in the 100 and 200 Backstroke events, finishing 19th in both events. Her 100 Back time had a CollegeSwimmimg.com performance score of 811.0 - the top score in the WAC this week for women. It is an NCAA B Cut and it is the 58th fastest time in DI and the fastest in the WAC this season. Glavnyk's 200 Back time had a CollegeSwimmimg.com performance score of 789.0 - the 2nd highest score in the WAC this week. It is an NCAA B Cut. Iryna is currently ranked 50th in DI and 1st in the WAC this season.
Geiger, a junior from Fullerton, Calif. (Troy HS) enjoyed a great weekend against WAC foe New Mexico State, winning the 3-meter competition and placing third on 1-meter. Her score of 280.80 on 3-meter was good enough to place first overall in the event. While she did not win the 1-meter event - finishing behind two of her teammates - she did place third with a season-best score of 280.00. Geiger now has four dual meet event wins this season.
Other swimmer nominees: Northern Arizona's Kimmy Richter posted three event wins - two individual and one relay - in NAU's dual meet victory at New Mexico State. Her first win of the day in the 200 freestyle was the most impressive as she overcame a two-second deficit at the 100 yard halfway point to edge out NMSU's Picabo Bender by .09 seconds. She ended up clocking a season-best time of 1:53.40 in the come-from-behind win, in the third event of the day, to spur NAU on its way. After placing third in the 200 butterfly, she earned her second win of the day in the 500 freestyle by exactly three seconds with a time of 5:05.64. Richter then ended the day as part of NAU's 400 freestyle relay winning team with a season-best time of 3:33.83. Richter matched her previous season total of two dual meet wins in one day at New Mexico State. North Dakota's Ali Church got the final day started on the right foot for UND by posting her season-best time of 17:05.84 in the 1650-yard freestyle, breaking her former season-best time by over a minute. The time was also a school-record for the 1650, set by Morgan Lynch at the 2014 WAC Championships. Church finished in 9th for the event, but continued to lead the Fighting Hawks to the start of a strong day. Church also had a season-best time of 4:57.23 in the 500-yard freestyle, besting her previous-best time by 19 seconds. NM State's Cassandra Rupp won the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 58.40 and won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:06.81. She was also a part of the 200-yard relay team that finished second with a time of 1:47.68, and the 400-yard Freestyle relay team that finished second with a time of 3:35.47. Seattle U's Kaitlyn Overstreet broke a school record and set another personal best as Seattle University faced top-30 school Washington State in a dual meet last Saturday. Overstreet gave a preview of what was to come during the 400 medley relay, posting a 100 butterfly split of 57.13 seconds, fastest among the three Redhawk relays. In the 200 butterfly, she set the school record with a time of 2:04.19, nearly a full second quicker than the old mark of 2:05.05 set at the 2014 WAC Championships and over four seconds faster than Overstreet's previous best set earlier this season at Grand Canyon. She capped off the day with a second-place finish in the 100-butterfly in 57.55 seconds, moving into sixth place on Seattle U's all-time top times list in the event. Overstreet's 200-butterfly time should be one of the top marks in the Western Athletic Conference so far in 2015-16.
Other diver nominees: North Dakota's Alexis Eissinger finished 12th in the preliminaries on the 3-meter dive with a 243.15 score, and finished tenth on the platform with a score of 172.15.