Feb. 25, 2009
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - San Diego State relay teams set a pair of school records on the opening day of the Mountain West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships being held in Oklahoma City, Okla. The Aztecs finished the evening in sixth place, but just four points away from second place in the tightly contested meet that has six teams within nine points of each other.
With three finals being contested on the day, the Aztecs began with a fifth-place finish in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Brooke Vessey, Jeanette Engzell, Elisabeth Krueger and Alexis McCoy turned in an SDSU-record time of 1:42.65, breaking the old mark by over three seconds. The previous record of 1:45.91 had stood since 2002 when Meghan Casillan, Jill Karacozoff, Tara Johnson and Heather DeFelice set it at that year's conference championship event.
In addition to setting a new Aztec record, the time of 1:42.65 made a provisional NCAA qualifier of the 200 medley relay squad.
In the final of the evening's three events, the quartet of Alex Peters, Kyla Power, Krueger and Vessey established a new school record in the 800 free relay with a time of 7:31.11. That mark bettered the old record of 7:35.25 by just over four seconds.
In between the relays, junior Alex Barstad took seventh place in the 3-meter diving with a score of 272.55 points. Bartad's finish marked the first time that SDSU had ever placed a finalist among the top eight (an A-finalist) at the championships. Senior teammate Caitlin Atkinson also scored points in the three-meter diving for the Aztecs with a 12th-place finish (249.65).
At the conclusion of the meets' first three vents contested on Wednesday, San Diego State finds itself with 71 points and in sixth place, but just four points behind Brigham Young and Utah who are tied for second with 75 points. The standings after day one are as follows:
School PtsWyoming.........109Brigham Young....75Utah.............75UNLV.............74TCU..............72San Diego State..71Colorado State...66New Mexico.......57Air Force........46The championships continue on Thursday with prelims in the one-meter springboard beginning at 10:00 a.m. (CST). Thursday's finals in addition to the diving include the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and the 200 free relay.
For the latest on the MWC Championships, go to Championship Central where daily results and recaps are available. Real-time results are also available by .