This Week in WAC Swimming and Diving - Oct. 20
This Week in WAC Swimming and Diving - Oct. 20
MEN'S ATHLETES OF THE WEEK: OCT. 13 - 18
UNLV's Panos Bolanos and Califronia Baptist's Evan Honer has been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Men's Swimmer and Diver of the Week, respectively, for Oct. 13 through 18.
Bolanos, a junior from Athens, Greece, led the Rebels to place second in the USC Invitational, Friday through Saturday. He opened his individual run with a runner-up finish in the 100 backstroke (47.48) with a NCAA B cut and current national top-ten time according to Collegeswimming. Bolanos gave the Rebels their only event win in the meet in the 200 backstoke (1:44.01) with another NCAA B cut time and putting him in the top-five in the nation according to Collegeswimming.
Honer, a junior from Surprise, Ariz., opened his season with a win and a runner-up finish at the Lancer Diving Invitationals, Saturday. Honer won the 3-meter dive with a 19.10-difficulty dive and a total score of 328.35. He also came in second in the 1-meter dive with a 18.00-difficulty dive totaling a score of 309.68.
WOMEN'S ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: OCT. 13 -18
Grand Canyon's Lizzy McKnight has been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Women's Diver of the Week for Oct. 13 through Oct. 18.
McKnight, a sophomore from Kent, Wash., had two first-place finishes in the Lancer Diving Invitational, Saturday. She tied for first in the 1-meter dive with a score of 237.75. To close her meet, McKnight wins the 3-meter dive with a score of 265.65, 20 points ahead from the rest of her competition.
OTHER ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
Other men's swimmer nominee: Air Force's Wen Zhang recorded three individual first-place finishes in the 200 freestyle (1:37.09), the 100 freestyle (44.75), and 500 freestyle (4:42.78) at the Falcon's three-way meet against Colorado Mines and Nebraska-Omaha, Friday. His altitude adjusted time for 200 freestyle (1:35.49) is currently the seventh fastest time in the nation according to Collegeswimming.
Other men's diver nominee: Grand Canyon's Isaac Poole was neck to neck with Honer this past weekend winning the 1-meter with a 16.70-difficulty dive totaling a score of 329.85 and came second in the 3-meter and a total score of 323.85 with a 16.60 degree of difficulty dive.
Other women's diver nominee: California Baptist's Kiree Lowe tied in first with McKnight in the 1-meter dive with a score of 237.75.
AIR FORCE
The Falcons hosted Colorado Mines and Nebraska-Omaha for a tri-meet, Firday. They won both meets with 173-112 against Nebraska-Omaha and 190-86 over Colorado Mines.
Air Force's 200 medley relay team quartet of Gabe Bartolomei, Tommy Nagle, Matthew Lattin and Andrew Limpert won the first event of the meet (1:32.19).
Wen Zhang led the Falcons with three individual first-place finishes, winning the 200 freestyle (1:37.09), 100 freestyle (44.75) and 500 freestyle (4:42.78). Other first-place finishes were Bartolomei in the 200 backstroke (1:54.94), Joseph Moore in the 200 butterfly (1:54.75), Logan Davis in the 200 backstroke (2:11.69), Limpert in the 100 butterfly (49.77) and Corey Sheppard in the 50 freestyle (20.45).
In diving, Tristan Trax won first-place, in 1-meter (221.30), while teammate Christopher Gunn finished second (215.85). Gunn took first in the 3-meter dive (233.90).
The 200 freestyle relay team consisting of Zhang, Limpert, Moore and Jacob Bulseco closed the meet with another win for the Falcons (1:22.13).
CALIFORNIA BAPTIST
The Lancers hosted their first home meet of the season in the Lancer Diving Invitational, Saturday.
Evan Honer and Kiree Lowe led the men's and women's team, respectively. Honer earned this week WAC men's diver of the week award by winning the 3-meter dive (328.35) and coming runner-up in the 1-meter dive (309.68). Lowe tied first with WAC women's diver of the week Lizzy McKnight in 1-meter dive (237.75). Freshman Paula De Moya dove into her collegiate debut with an impressive third-place 1-meter dive (235.65).
GRAND CANYON
The Lopes went on the road at the Lancer Diving Invite, Saturday. McKnight was named WAC women's diver of ther week for the second time in a row after leading the Lopes' women's team with two first-place finishes in the 1-meter (237.75) and 3-meter (265.65). Junior Abigail Erickson also came to compete as she finished fourth and second in the 1-meter (233.70) and 3-meter (245.85).
On the men's side, WAC diver of the week nominee, Poole, was neck to neck with diver of the week, Honer, finishing first in the 1-meter (329.85) and second in the 3-meter (323.85).
IDAHO
The Vandals went on the road to this season's WAC swimming and diving arena at the Houston Diving Invitational, Friday through Saturday.
Hailey Faith got the Vandals' top finish of the meet as she came fifth in the the platform (199.40), while Emily Mack came in eighth on the same event (176.80). Heather Hopkins recorded another top-10 finish for the Vandals as she came eighth in the 3-meter (274.75).
NORTHERN ARIZONA
The Lumberjacks recorded to wins in one day when they hosted Arizona Christian (191-21) and Ottawa (188-52), Saturday.
The quartet of Jamie Dellwardt, Delaney Phillips, Caylah Jago, and Ashley Lawrence started the meet strong by winning the 200 yard medley relay (1:47.33). The Lumberjacks then proceeded to win a total of 14 event wins. Freshman Casey Craffey took two notable distance event wins in the 1000 (10:36.36) and 500 freestyle (5:07.54). Bena Koehn also had two individual wins in the 50 (24.75) and 100 free (54.31).
UNLV
The Rebels went on the road at the USC Invite where they placed second overall only losing to the 23rd ranked host team USC, Friday through Saturday.
WAC swimmer of the week Bolanos led the way for UNLV as he tallied a win and a runner-up finish in the 200 backstroke (1:44.01) and 100 backstroke (47,48) respectively. Freshman Adnan Beji touched the wall second in the 200 breastroke with a NCAA B cut time (1:57.65) and had a top-five finish in the 100 breastroke (54.37). Dominik Bujak also recorded a runner-up finish for the Rebels in the 400 IM with another NCAA B cut time (3:50.58). Distance swimmers Cam Castro (15:16.14) and Cooper Kiel (15:25.39) each clocked NCAA B cut times in 1650 freestyle as they, respectively, finished thrid and fifth.