DENVER - Grand Canyon's Alyssa Christianson and Northern Arizona's Tatiana Kurach have been named Western Athletic Conference Women's Swimmer and Diver of the Week, respectively, for Oct. 31-Nov. 6.
Christianson, a sophomore from Montrose, Colo., led her team by winning all four of her individual events and was on two winning relays as well to help secure first place for GCU over both Idaho and Air Force. Her time of 1:04.90 in the 100 breast ranks first in the WAC for this season as well as her time of 2:05.56 in the 200 individual medley. A 4:30.92 time in the 400 individual medley and 2:20.29 in the 200 breast was enough for two more first place individual finishes for her team. She then joined her relay team and contributed to the breast leg of the 200 medley relay (29.27) and 400 medley relay (56.80).
Kurach, a junior from Saint Petersburg, Russia, contributed to her team as they came out victorious over Air Force. She placed second in the one-meter board with a score of 288.08 and third in the three-meter board with a finish of 285.75. Kurach had a near school record performance to help her team defeat WAC rival Idaho. She won the one-meter event with a score of 328.88. Her score was a career-best and was less than four points off the school record. Kurach then placed third in the three-meter event with a score of 309.83.
Other swimmer nominees: CSU Bakersfield's Jayssie Haynes individually came in first in the 200 free (1:53.82), 200 breast (2:21.22) and 400 medley (4:29.54) events and helped her team finish first in the 200 medley (1:49.20) in the meet against Cal Baptist… Northern Arizona's Kimmy Richter finished the week with three individual first place finishes (1,000 free-10:36.46, 200 free-1:52.92 and 500 free-5:06.13) and two first place relay finishes which included the 200 medley (1:47.28) and 400 free (3:35.60) in the meets against Air Force and Idaho… Seattle U's Paige Treff individually finished first in the 50 free (23.57) and 100 free (51.93) and helped her relay team in a first place finish in the 200 medley (1:50.62) and second in the 400 free (3:35.21).
Other diver nominee: CSU Bakersfield's Hannah Chernabaeff finished second in both the one-meter board (217.88) and three-meter board (223.43) against Cal Baptist… Grand Canyon's Menna Elmidany qualified for the NCAA Diving Championships in the three-meter event scoring 293.55 which broke a school record as well as breaking the school record for the one-meter event with a score of 260.03.