DALLAS – The first-place San Diego State swim and dive team added to its lead after the second day of action at the SMU Invitational inside Robson & Lindley Aquatics Center.
The Aztecs racked up 646 points by the end of Friday's competition, comfortably ahead of Hawai'i, which finds itself in second place with 507 points, followed by Miami (FL) (462 pts) and host SMU (433 pts), while fellow Mountain West adversary Wyoming (271 pts), Drury University (241 pts), TCU (37 pts) and Arkansas (28 pts) round out the field, with the latter two teams competing in diving events only.
SDSU claimed two event titles and logged four NCAA B cut times, including a victory by Alex Roberts in the A Finals of the 100 backstroke where she clocked in with a career-fast 52.90, which ranks second in school history.
In addition, Abby Storm moved into the eighth spot on the program's all-time charts in the event after finishing second behind Roberts with a swim of 54.28, while Riley Tapley took third at 54.90, followed by Evonne Stehr's seventh-place effort of 55.33.
Not to be outdone, Kristina Murphy emerged triumphant in the A Finals of the 400 individual medley after touching the wall at 4:13.56. Earlier in the day, she swam a 4:13.24 in the preliminaries, which ranks fourth in school history.
Murphy also climbed into the fifth position on the Aztecs' all-time list in the 100 breaststroke after completing the race with a personal-best 1:01.33, finishing third in the A Finals, just ahead of Christiana Williams, who placed fourth with a season-fast 1:01.49. Both Murphy and Williams' eclipsed NCAA B cut standards in the process.
Additionally, Meredith Smithbaker finished fifth in the event with a time of 1:01.66, while Moa Bergdahl added to SDSU's strong showing after placing seventh with a season-fast swim of 1:01.93.
The Aztecs opened the day with a pair of top-five performances in the 200 medley relay, as the quartet of Stehr, Smithbaker, Lizzie Menzmer and Jeannette King joined forces for a third-place clocking of 1:39.77, while the foursome of Tapley, Williams, Roberts and Lyndsey Wehr finished fifth at 1:41.63.
In the A Finals of the 200 freestyle, Wilma Johansson established a career-best with a third-place swim of 1:48.21, while Emily Gebhardt also posted a collegiate-fast clocking of 1:50.49 to finish third in the B Finals and 12th overall.
In the B Finals of the 100 backstroke, King came through with a victory after posting a season-fast 54.63 to place ninth overall.
San Diego State continued to pile up points in the 800 freestyle relay, including a second-place finish by the team of Emily Allen, Murphy, Johansson and Gebhardt, who clocked in at 7:18.18, while the squad of Paige Mitchell, Alyssa Schiller, Avery Turney and Wehr took eighth after covering the distance in 7:29.95.
In the finals of the 3-meter diving competition, Ximena Lechuga Gonzalez placed fifth with 272.00 points, while teammate Summer Westmoreland landed in the seventh spot with a total of 263.70 points.
The SMU Invitational concludes on Saturday with preliminaries beginning at 10 a.m. CT/8 a.m. PT, followed by 3-meter diving at noon CT/10 a.m. PT, while finals are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. CT/4 pm. PT.
Saturday's slate will feature the 1,650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, platform diving and the 400 freestyle relay (finals only).
A link to streaming video will be available on GoAztecs.com, and fans are encouraged to download the Meet Mobile app on their smartphones for updated results.
Aztec Swim and Dive Maintains Lead at SMU Invite
