Aztecs Defend Crown at Gary Ota Memorial Invitational
The San Diego State swim and dive program successfully defended its team championship at the Gary Ota Memorial Invitational after claiming three additional event titles on Saturday at Fresno State Aquatics Center.
FRESNO, Calif. – The San Diego State swim and dive program successfully defended its team championship at the Gary Ota Memorial Invitational after claiming three additional event titles on Saturday at Fresno State Aquatics Center.
The Aztecs maintained their perch atop the five-team field, finishing with a two-day total of 1,090.50 points to hold off second-place Houston (1,072.50 pts), while host Fresno State (772 pts) landed in the third spot, followed by UC Davis (540 pts) and San José State (518 pts.).
With its tally, SDSU captured the Gary Ota Memorial Invitational for the second year in a row after eight consecutive runner-up placements in the Central Valley dating back to 2016.
Since the beginning of the 2017-18 season, SDSU has competed in 21 regular-season invitational meets and has finished outside of the top three just once during that span, logging eight first-place performances, 10 second-place efforts and a pair of third-place results.
Kaydence Bispo (100 free) and Alli Mann (200 fly) claimed their second individual gold medals of the weekend, while the Scarlet and Black also emerged triumphant in the 400 medley relay.
In addition, the Aztecs boasted a trio of silver medalists in Camille Seiley (100 free), Roni Black (200 breast) and Ginger Kiefer (200 fly) while adding another second-place finish in the team diving event.
Elsewhere, SDSU received bronze medal swims from Kiefer (200 back) and Amber Janky (100 IM) to round out another highly successful meet.
The Aztecs opened the final session in style, as the 400 medley relay team of Liv Peebles, Elisa Branca, Mann and Alyssa Schiller combined for a winning time of 3:39.63, while SDSU’s second entry comprised of Melanie Quinto, Black, Charlotte Sevin and Bispo took fifth with a clocking of 3:42.92.
The ensuing event featured a pair of top five placements in the 100 individual medley, where Janky touched wall in third at 57.25, while Sierra Tallman was slotted fifth after completing the race at 57.73.
Shortly thereafter, the Aztecs logged two top 10 results in the 200 backstroke, including a third-place effort by Kiefer (1:59.97), while Grace Mering (2:01.85) finished in the eighth position.
As the meet progressed, the Scarlet and Black recorded a pair of 1-2 finishes in the 100 freestyle and the 200 fly. Bispo (50.43) edged Seiley for the crown in the 100 free, while Mann (1:58.73) bested Kiefer (1:59.96) in the 200 fly, which also featured top 10 swims by Sevin (8th, 2:03.57), Janky (9th, 2:04.09) and Tallman (10th, 2:04.60).
In the 200 breast, Black touched the wall with a second-place time of 2:13.41, while Branca completed the event in sixth with a clocking of 2:17.76.
SDSU also displayed its tremendous depth in the team diving event, where the trio of Alina Skrocki, Isabella Gomez and Belen Cano placed second with a combined score of 270.10, while the troika of Lucy Chavez, Sophia Hineline and Ella Minor took fourth with an aggregate total of 242.00.
The Aztecs had three competitors entered in the 1,650 freestyle who contributed to the team’s final point-total, including Mering, who completed a personal-best swim of 17:38.75 to finish in 11th, followed by Hannah Campbell (12th, 17:55.47) and Julia Reed (14th, 19:26.29).
Individually, Alli Mann established a pool record in the 100 fly with a winning time of 53.00 and helped set another facility standard in 800 freestyle relay, where she anchored the victorious combo of Kaydence Bispo, Ginger Kiefer and Melanie Quinto, who clocked in at 7:18.13.
Rounding out Saturday’s action was a fourth-place showing by the SDSU 400 freestyle “B” relay team of Quinto, Peebles, Tallman and Janky, who completed the race with a time of 3:25.44, while the Aztecs’ “C” entry of Sevin, Black, Ava Haese and Kiefer was 11th at 3:31.48.
San Diego State will have the next two weekends off from competition before returning to action for California Baptist’s Rick Rowland Joust, scheduled for Nov. 6-7 at Lancer Aquatics Center in Riverside, California.