LOS ANGELES – Riding a 29 dual-match winning streak, the swimming portion of the San Diego State swimming and diving team, added three more to that total with wins over Seattle U, Grand Canyon, and Loyola Marymount by scores of 132-to-65, 118-to-76, and 132-to-65, respectively, on Friday at the Burns Aquatic Center on the LMU campus.
In the 11 events contested, San Diego State won the first nine and had the fastest times in the final two, but those swims were classified as exhibitions due to the disparity in scoring at that point in the meet.
In the first race of the day, the 200-medley relay, the Aztecs finished in first and third and had the fifth fastest time, but that time was deemed an exhibition. The team of Riley Tapley, Klara Thormalm, Cassie Phillips and Meredith Smithbaker won the race in 1:41.43, the fastest time of the year in the event for San Diego State. Evonne Stehr, Sammy Geyer, Emily Gebhardt and Brynlee Busskohl were the third-place squad in 1:48.56 and with the fifth fastest time, 1:51.31, were Lexi Anderson, Ashlyn Hemphill, Jessie McMurray and Mai McKenna.
Dulaney, the Aztecs lone competitor in the 1650 free, won the race in 17:52.23, less than three-tenths of a second faster than the second-place finisher. Her time was just shy of six second faster than her season best of 17:58.20, which she swam two weeks ago at the Chick-Fil-A Invitational in Fresno, Calif.
Mia Ryan and Lauren Torchiana swam the 200 free for San Diego State. Ryan was the first to touch the wall in 1:52.47, more than four seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Torchiana was eighth in a time of 2:01.96. It was the first race of the year at the distance for each and Ryan's time was the fastest for the team this year.
In the first sprint of the day, the 50 free, the Aztecs had six competitors. Lizzie Menzmer and Phillips won the race in a dead heat in 23.61, and Cathy Cooper was fifth (24.13). The other three San Diego State competitors, Fiona Trotz-Chavez with the seventh quickest time (24.40), Busskohl in tenth (25.44) and McMurray in 13th (25.96) swam as an exhibition.
San Diego State had three swimmers in the 200 IM. Kristina Murphy won the race in 2:04.13, the best time by an Aztec this year, while Wilma Johansson was second in 2:08.55 and Alex Roberts finished third in 2:09.16, a career-best time. In addition to the first three places, Stehr was fifth (2:10.52) and McKenna touched in 2:15.89, more than two and a half seconds faster than her season best, for 11th quickest. Both Stehr and McKenna swam as an exhibition
The Aztecs took three of the first four spots in the 100 fly. Phillips won the event in 54.28, and Menzmer (56.98) and Tapley (57.32) were third and fourth, respectively. Swimming as an exhibition, Lexi Anderson had the fifth fastest time, 58.11, and Trotz-Chavez's time was seventh best (59.31) and Gebhardt's was the ninth quickest time (59.46).
Smithbaker won the 100 free in 51.47. From third to fifth place were Thormalm, Geyer and Cooper. Thormalm touched in 53.62 and Geyer in 54.05. Cooper's race was an exhibition, but she swam the fifth fastest time with a 54.74.
As was the case in the 100 fly, the Aztecs took three of the top four spots in the 100 back. Tapley was the winner in 56.24, her quickest time so far this year, while Roberts was third in 58.40 and Murphy was fourth in 59.07. Swimming as exhibitions, McKenna came home in 58.98, Torchiana in 1:00.69 and Anderson in 1:01.04.
Ryan won the 500 free in 5:08.99. Johnasson was third in 5:12.10 and Dulaney touched in fourth in 5:14.63.
In the final two events all the Aztecs swam as exhibitions.
San Diego State had six of the top nine times in the 100 breaststroke. Thormalm had the fastest time in the race, a 1:02.87. Busskohl and McMurray were the third and fourth quickest at 1:05.63 and 1:06.30, respectively, and both season bests. Roberts (1:07.73) was the sixth fastest, Geyer (107.96) the seventh fastest and Hemphill (1:08.79) recorded the ninth quickest time.
The final competition was the 400 free relay. The team of Stehr, Smithbaker, Menzmer and Ryan touched the wall first in 3:30.27. Johnasson, Cooper, Murphy and Gebhardt had the third quickest time and Torchiana, Trotz-Chavez, Hemphill and Dulaney were sixth fastest in 3:48.18.
The Aztecs, Lions, Redhawks and Lopes will do it all over again on Saturday and San Diego State's now 32 dual match winning streak will again be on the line. The meet gets underway at 11 a.m. PT.
-SDSU-
Aztecs Sweep Three Duals On Day One At LMU
