Feb. 21, 2014
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - San Diego State swimmers won three events and set a pair of Mountain West records as they remained in second place after day three of four at the 2014 conference championship meet in San Antonio, Texas.
Boise maintained its hold on the top spot with 477 points with the Aztecs close behind at 458.5. Nevada stands a distant third with 319 points heading into the final day of competition.
SDSU got Friday's finals session off the a perfect start by capturing first place in the 400 medley relay with a time of 3:35.13, a new Mountain West and school record. The quartet of Anika Apostalon, Chelsea Baily, Maddy Dalcamo and Whitney Weisz turned in the NCAA `B' Cut mark and made it four wins in four relay races for San Diego State.
Apostalon would later take first in the 100 backstroke in a Mountain West record time of 51.92. It was her second conference record of the meet after her record-setting performance in the 50 freestyle on Thursday. As she did in the 50, she registered an NCAA `A' Cut mark in the 100 back meaning automatic entry into next month's NCAA Championships in the event.
In the 400 individual medley, senior Mikaela Macklin was edged out of first place by just .23 second as she bettered her own school record by almost four seconds with a time of 4:07.32. Also in the final Frida, Berggren finished fifth in 4:18.57 with Caroline Mitchell eighth in 4:19.63 as their times rank as the third- and fifth-fastest in program history. Macklin's and Berggren's marks were also NCAA `B' Cut times.
The Aztecs top finisher in the 100 butterfly was junior Loreen Whitfield who clocked a 54.04 to place fourth with an NCAA `B Cut mark. The 200 freestyle race saw Aztecs Natilee Ruiz (1:47.15), Savannah Miller (1:47.24) and Weisz (1:50.22) place third, fifth and eighth respectively. Ruiz and Miller achieved NCAA `B' Cut times with all three recoding marks (including a 1:48.21 by Weisz in the prelims) that rank among the top 10 in program history.
In the 100 breaststroke, junior Laura Day captured top honors with a finals time of 1:01.73. Her mark of 1:01.42 in the prelims goes into the school record book as the second-fastest ever by an SDSU swimmer.
Action concludes at the championship meet on Saturday (Feb. 22) with prelims in the200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly getting under at 11:00 a.m. CT (9:00 a.m. PT). Prelims for the platform diving will start at 12:30 p.m. MT (10:30 a.m. PT).
Live video of Thursday's prelim is available by clicking here and live results can be accessed by clicking here. Saturday evening's finals will start at 6:30 p.m. CT (4:30 p.m. PT).
TEAM SCORES 1. Boise State.......477 2. San Diego State...458.5 3. Nevada............319 4. Wyoming...........280 5. UNLV..............221.5 6. New Mexico........218 7. San Jose State....198 8. Air Force.........193 9. Colorado State....13110. Fresno State......126