Feb. 15, 2017
The San Diego State swimming and diving team finds itself tied for third place after the opening day of the 2017 Mountain West Championships being contested at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas.
After finals in three events on the first-day of the four-day meet, the Aztecs have 166 points and sit behind champion Boise State (200) and defending champion Nevada (198). SDSU's point total ties that of Wyoming and leads the six other schools in the competition.
Wednesday's finals session began with the 200 medley relay, where the foursome of Kate Santilena, Morganne McKenna, Summer Harrison and Alma Thormalm captured third place with a time of 1:39.17. That mark ranks as the fourth-fastest time in the event in Aztec program history.
In the 1-meter diving, junior Alexandra Caplan advanced to finals where she took fourth place with a score of 319.25. Her mark of 297.90 in the prelims put her in third heading into the finals.
Freshman Marie Yacopino's score of 268.10 in the prelims left her just outside of qualification for the finals, but she went on to place second (10th overall) in the Consolation Final. Her mark of 286.10 in the B Final ranks as the fifth-best mark ever by an SDSU diver.
San Diego State had four other athletes compete in the prelims of the 1-meter springboard, but none was able to advance. That group included Nicole Dutton (17th -- 250.20), Delaney Gallagher (21st -- 239.85), Makena Chamoures (23rd -- 237.30) and Payton Gabris (36th -- 200.10). In addition, freshman Wella Hsu, who just joined the team in January, was an exhibition diver and turned in a score of 191.70.
The third final on Wednesday came in the 800 freestyle relay where the Aztecs registered another third-place showing. This time it was the quartet of McKenna Meyer, Frida Berggren, Peyton Wilson and Kassidy Henson that went 7:17.79 to establish the seventh-fastest time ever for the Aztecs in the race.
Action continues at the 2017 Mountain West Swimming & Diving Championships on Thursday, Feb. 16, with prelims in the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 3-meter springboard set to get underway at 9:00 a.m. PT. Finals in those four events along with the 200 freestyle relay will be held later that day starting at 4:30 p.m. PT.
Live streaming video of both the prelims and finals can be found by clicking here while live results may be accessed by clicking here.
2017 MW ChampionshipsBoise State.........200Nevada..............198San Diego State.....166Wyoming.............166New Mexico..........115San Jose State......110Colorado State.......94UNLV.................84Fresno State.........84Air Force............53