Official Release
MINNEAPOLIS- On the second day of the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships, the Western Athletic Conference had one All-American performance. Mark Nikolaev from Grand Canyon received Second Team All-American recognition in the 100 backstroke event for the first time in his career.
Nikolaev, a junior from Seltso, Russia, went into the championship ranked second nationally with a time of 44.71 seconds in the 100 back. In the preliminaries, Nikolaev fell just shy of the top eight swimmers as he placed ninth with a time of 45.30. He cut off .09 seconds in the finals but fell to tenth place in his first ever NCAA Championship showing. Since he placed tenth out of 37 swimmers, Nikolaev found a spot on Second Team All-American with his performance.
The championship will conclude tomorrow, March 24 at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center. Nikolaev will have a chance to compete in the 200 backstroke with the preliminaries starting at 10 a.m. CT.