HOUSTON – The San Diego State swim and dive team embarked on the right path toward defending its conference crown on Wednesday after capturing two of the first three events at the Mountain West Championships inside CRWC Natatorium on the University of Houston campus.
The Aztecs racked up 223 points on the day, maintaining the top perch in the team standings over second-place Nevada (211 pts), while Wyoming (154 pts) occupies the third spot, followed by UNLV (136 pts).
Typifying the entire 2022-23 campaign, SDSU set the tone with a victory in the 200 medley relay, as the quartet of Alex Roberts, Meredith Smithbaker, Lizzie Menzmer and Jeannette King combined for an NCAA "B" Cut time of 1:36.62, which marked the second-fastest clocking in conference history behind the Aztecs' entry at the 2020 MW meet (1:36.30).
In addition, San Diego State's second relay team of Evonne Stehr, Moa Bergdahl, Riley Tapley and Alyssa Schiller netted the Scarlet and Black some additional points in the same event after winning the first heat and finishing seventh overall with a time of 1:40.89.
The Aztecs also emerged triumphant in the 800 freestyle relay with the foursome of Avery Turney, Wilma Johansson, Kristina Murphy and Emily Gebhardt completing the race with a winning effort of 7:12.98, which ranks seventh on the program's all-time charts.
Bolstered by Johansson's split of 1:45.87, SDSU seized control of the pool and ultimately prevailed over UNLV (7:15.49) and third-place Wyoming (7:15.92).
With their results on Wednesday, the Aztecs successfully retained their titles in those two events from the previous year.
In the 1-meter springboard competition, four SDSU divers recorded NCAA Zone qualifying scores, including Ximena Lechuga Gonzalez and Summer Westmoreland, who advanced to the final round.
Lechuga Gonzalez finished fifth in the finals with a season-best 328.80 points following a fourth-place showing in the preliminaries (294.90 pts).
Meanwhile, after placing fifth in the preliminary round with a season-high 294.45 points, Westmoreland took eighth in the finals with 272.25 points.
In addition, a trio of Aztecs competed in the 1-meter consolation finals, including Valentina Lopez Arevalo (285.95 pts) and Emma Duggan (265.60 pts), who surpassed NCAA Zone qualifying standards of their own to finish the round in second and fourth, respectively.
Duggan's score marked a season best, while Olivia Zamudio rounded out the SDSU delegation with an eighth-place consolation total of 233.75 points.
The Mountain West Championships resume on Thursday with the 500 freestyle, 200 individual medley, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay, along with 3-meter springboard diving. Preliminaries are scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. CT/8:30 a.m. PT, with finals expected to start at 6 p.m. CT/4 p.m. PT. Links to streaming video and live results may be found on GoAztecs.com.
2023 Mountain West Championships
Houston, Texas
Team standings after three events (Day One)
1. San Diego State (223 pts)
2. Nevada (211 pts)
3. Wyoming (154 pts)
4. UNLV (136 pts)
5. Fresno State (133 pts)
6. San José State (112 pts)
7. Air Force (110 pts)
8. Colorado State (107 pts)
9. New Mexico (84 pts)
Aztecs Lead After Day One at MW Championships
