Feb. 26, 2010
OKLAHOMA CITY - San Diego State swimmers picked up two more individual first-place finishes along with a relay title as they closed the gap on the leaders during the third day of the 2010 Mountain West Conference Swimming and Diving Championships in Oklahoma City. The Aztecs remain in possession of third place in the standings with 400 points. BYU is the team leader with 484 points followed by Wyoming with 448.
Leading the way on Friday was Katelyn Weddle, who won the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.65 to set a new Mountain West Conference, meet and school record. The freshman from Yuma, Ariz., actually established the new records in the prelims with a mark of 1:01.11, then bettered that effort by almost half a second with her time in the finals. She met the NCAA B qualifying standard for potential entry in next month's national championship meet.
Later in the day, Weddle joined teammates Leona Jennings, Brooke Vessey and Stefanie Koch to capture first place in the 400 medley relay in 3:39.86. Their gold-medal effort also set new MWC, meet and school records and was an NCAA B time.
In the 200 freestyle, Meghan Zimmer won her second individual race of the met by going 1:47.56 in the final. Her prelim time of 1:47.35 established a new SDSU record as well. Both Zimmer and Koch, who finished third in 1:48.73, met the NCAA B time in the event. In addition, senior Petra Radovic added points for SDSU with an 8th-place finish (1:52.60). Radovic's prelim time of 1:50.86 goes down as the third-fastest in SDSU history.
San Diego State recorded three of the top eight finishes in the 100 backstroke led by Leona Jennings' second-place showing in 54.54. Teammates Allison Stuhr (56.01) and Kim Bierwith (56.69) finished sixth and seventh respectively.
In the 100 butterfly, Brooke Vessey took third in 55.53 while senior Kyla Power (56.33) was third in the B Final (11th overall). Vessey's prelim time (55.23) and Powers' final mark rank as the second- and fourth-best times in the event for an SDSU swimmer.
In the days' other event, senior Elena Karpeeva finished sixth (4:25.03) in the 400 individual medley and was followed by teammate Melanie Garibaldi (4:26.44). Garibaldi's time of 4:24.78 in the prelims makes her the second-fastest ever in this event, behind only Karpeeva, who holds the Aztec record.
The fourth and final day of the 2010 MWC Swimming and Diving Championships will get underway on Saturday, Feb. 27, beginning with the prelims of the 200 backstroke at 10:00 a.m. (CT). Events scheduled for day four also include the 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly, 1650 free, platform diving and the 400 free relay. Finals in all of those races begin at 6:15 p.m. (CT).
TEAM STANDNGSBrigham Young....484Wyoming..........448San Diego State..400UNLV.............275Utah.............258Colorado State...237TCU..............165New Mexico.......153Air Force.........88