Aztec Swim and Dive Prepares for Busy Week with Two Road Meets

SAN DIEGO – The San Diego State swim and dive program resumes its busy early-season schedule this week when it travels up the coast to face Pepperdine in a dual meet on Thursday, Oct. 15, before continuing north to the Central Valley for Fresno State’s Gary Ota Memorial Invitational, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 16-17, in Fresno, California.

The Aztecs will battle the Waves at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu, California, beginning at 10:30 a.m. PT in the first of two head-to-head meetings between the programs this season. Pepperdine will visit “America’s Finest City” for the rematch in a double dual meet with Utah Tech on Friday, Jan. 8, 2027.

SDSU has emerged victorious in all 26 encounters with the Waves since 2001, including an 83-59 triumph in Malibu last season. The Aztecs captured seven swimming events on the day, posting 1-2 finishes in both relays to highlight another successful performance. Additionally, the Scarlet and Black recorded the top seven fastest times in the 100 individual medley and featured at least the top three times in two other individual events.

San Diego State swimmers are coming off a 79-64 victory over the University of San Diego in a dual meet at the Toreros’ home pool on Oct. 2. In a showdown featuring modified distances, The Aztecs were victorious in eight scheduled events, posting at least the top two finishers in five of those races to defeat their crosstown adversary for the second time in two weeks.

Individually, Alli Mann captured the two event titles (150 free, 150 fly) and swam on SDSU’s triumphant 200 medley relay and 200 free relay teams, while Melanie Quinto (150 back), Elisa Branca (150 breast), Kaydence Bispo (400 free) and Ginger Kiefer (300 IM) to help the Aztecs secure their 87th consecutive dual-meet victory dating back to January 2018.

Meanwhile, San Diego State will face host Fresno State at the Gary Ota Memorial Invitational, along with Houston, UC Davis and former Mountain West rival San José State. Later this season, the Scarlet and Black will square off against the Bulldogs at the Aztec Invitational in San Diego on Saturday, Jan. 9.

Friday's action at the Fresno State Aquatics Center gets underway at 11 a.m. PT, with a second session to follow at 6 p.m., while Saturday's competition begins at 10 a.m. Heats will be timed finals, and a link to live results and streaming video will be available on GoAztecs.com.

The top 16 individuals will score points in the invitational format (20-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-9-7-6-5-4- 3-2-1), while two relays per school will score points (40-34-32-30-28-26-24-22-18-14-12-10-8-6-4-2), although each program may enter as many relay teams as they wish.

After eight consecutive second-place finishes at the Fresno State/Chick-Fil-A/Gary Ota Memorial Invitational between 2016 and 2024, San Diego State emerged with the team title in last season. The Aztecs finished with a two-day total of 931.50 points to easily outdistance the host Bulldogs (820.50) points, while Washington State (802 pts) was slotted third, followed by Air Force (776 pts) and San José State (475 pts).

Among individual returners, Mann was victorious in the 100 fly (55.50), while Alyssa Schiller took second in the 100 free (50.84). In addition, the Scarlet and Black flexed its proverbial muscles with first-place finishes in the 400 medley relay (3:42.61), 400 free relay (3:23.15) and 800 free relay (7:27.55).

Since the beginning of the 2017-18 season, SDSU has competed in 20 regular-season invitational meets and has finished outside of the top three just once during that span, logging seven first-place performances, 10 second-place efforts and a pair of third-place results.

Following this week’s events, San Diego State swimmers will have a three-week hiatus before returning to the competition pool for California Baptist’s Rick Rowland Joust, Nov. 6-7, at Lancer Aquatics Center in Riverside, California.