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SIX MEN SWIMMERS AND ONE DIVER SET TO COMPETE IN NCAA DIVISION I CHAMPIONSHIPS
The NCAA Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Committee has announced the participants in the 2018 NCAA Division I Championships, which will be held March 21-24 at the Jean K. Freeman Aquatic Center in Minneapolis. There will be seven Western Athletic Conference athletes competing. The five swimmers from Grand Canyon are Daniil Antipov, Mazen El Kamash, Youssef El Kamash, Mark Nikolaev and Bogdan Plavin, the one swimmer from UNLV is Brad Gonzales and the one diver from Wyoming is Scotia Mullin.
Antipov, a junior from Krasnoyarsk, Russia, was originally named the first alternate to compete individually in the 200 butterfly but later received the official invitation to compete with his time of 1:42.60. He broke his own WAC All-Time and program records during the WAC Championships last month which he set back in 2016.
Y. El Kamash, a senior from Alexandria, Egypt, was also named an alternate to compete individually in the 100 breaststroke but later received the official invitation to compete with his season best time of 52.76.
Nikolaev, a junior from Seltso, Russia, is currently ranked second in the nation with his “A†Cut performance in the 100 backstroke of 44.71 seconds. He broke his own WAC All-Time and program records which he set last year. In the same meet, he also broke his own 200 back (1:40.81) and 200 yard individual medley (1:43.60) WAC All-Time and program records. Nikolaev received the honor of WAC Men's Swimmer of the Year and will be competing in all three individual events at the championship.
Antipov, Y. El Kamash and Nikolaev teamed up with Mazen El Kamash, a senior from Alexandira, Egypt, to break the WAC All-Time and program records in the 200 and 400 medley relay with a performance of 1:24.33 and 3:07.48. The WAC All-Time record for the 200 medley relay they beat was set in 2014 by UNLY and they shaved off exactly one second. Their time was good enough to be an “A†Cut and ranked 12th in the nation. The record they beat for the 400 medley relay was set in 2016 by Grand Canyon. The relay team qualified for both events and will be representing both Grand Canyon and the WAC later this week.
Antipov, M. El Kamash, Nikolaev and Plavin will team up again to compete in the 200 freestyle relay as they are currently ranked 24th in the nation. Their season best of 1:18.26 was performed back in November as they qualified with the provisional standard.
Gonzales, a freshman from Cypress, Calif., broke the WAC All-Time record in the 1650 freestyle last December as he recorded a time of 14:46.31. The previous record (14:47.18) was held by Mitchell Huxhold from CSU Bakersfield since March 1, 2014. Gonzales's time was good enough to be ranked 15th in the nation. He will also compete in the 500 free as he is seeded 47th with a time of 4:19.44.
Mullin, a sophomore from Glasgow, Scotland, earned a spot on the platform dive event at the championship for the second year in a row after finishing in the top five at the Zone E Championships. Mullin claimed the title at the WAC Championships last month as he scored a 393.20 to defend his 2017 title. He will also compete in the 3m diving event. Mullin claimed the 3m WAC title for the first time this year as he scored 349.50 and collected the Diver of the Year honor.
NIKOLAEV EARNS SECOND TEAM ALL-AMERICAN HONORS
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.
MULLIN EARNS SECOND TEAM ALL-AMERICAN HONORS
On the final day of the NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships, the Western Athletic Conference had one All-America performance. Scotia Mullin from Wyoming received Second Team All-American recognition in the platform dive event for the second time in his career.
Mullin, a sophomore from Glasgow, Scotland, scored 357.50 points in the preliminary round to place 13th and advance to the consolation final. He finished the event scoring a 286.40 to claim 16th place out of 43 divers. With his second appearance, Mullin became the second Cowboy diver to qualify for the NCAA Championships in back-to-back seasons and the first to earn All-American honorable mention in both competitions.
CSCAA FALL 2017 SCHOLAR ALL-AMERICA TEAMS
The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America has announced the 688 teams that have earned the distinction of Scholar All-America Team for the Fall 2017 semester. The teams represented 430 institutions from across all NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA Divisions.
For a team to be considered, it must have a minimum 3.0 grade point average (on a 4.0 scale) as defined by the institution. The team grade point average includes all eligible varsity student-athletes. The following are the Western Athletic Conference honorees:
Men's:
Grand Canyon (3.71)
Seattle U (3.22)
Women's:
Grand Canyon (3.72)
Idaho (3.45)
NM State (3.35)
Northern Arizona (3.46)
Northern Colorado (3.49)
Seattle U (3.59)