Swimming and Diving Set to Defend MW Crown
SDSUs swimming and diving team completed a perfect dual-meet season, hoisting an 8-0 record throughout their 2019-2020 campaign.
For the fifth time in seven seasons, SDSU completed a perfect dual-meet season, hoisting an 8-0 record throughout their 2019-20 campaign. The Aztecs earned wins over University of San Diego, University of Idaho, Alaska Fairbanks, Pepperdine, and Boise State in the regular season, bettering their dual-meet record to 79-2 since January 2013.
The Aztecs own all five of the conference's top relay times, including a 400-meter freestyle relay performance of 3:19.90, more than two seconds faster than any other MW squad. SDSU's 400-meter medley relay time of 3:39.89 also holds almost a three-second gap on the rest of the conference competition, with the second-best performance held by Wyoming at 3:42.76.
The Aztecs also hold seven of the Mountain West's best individual marks this season. Sophomore Lizzie Menzmer leads the conference in the 50-meter freestyle, recording a time of 22.80 at the Mizzou Invitational on Nov. 20, 2019. Milena Karpisz tops the conference charts in the 500 freestyle with her 4:46.68 finish at the same meet and sits fifth in the conference in the 1650 freestyle with her season-best time of 16:54.17.
SDSU dominates the Mountain West in the breaststroke, with Aztecs holding top times in the 50-, 100-, and 200-meter breast throughout 2019-20. Junior Klara Thormalm marked the conference's best swims in the 50 and 200 breaststroke at the European Short Course Swimming Championships Dec. 4-8, 2019, finishing with marks of 27.74 and 1:00.24 (converted), respectively, while defending 100 breast champion senior Morganne McKennan holds the MW's best mark in the event with her performance at the Mizzou Invitational, earning an NCAA 'B' cut time of 59.83.
Once again this season, defending conference champion Courtney Vincent is dominating the Mountain West competition in the 100-meter butterfly, holding the conference's best swim in 2019-2020 by over a second. Her season and career-best time of 51.86 at the Mizzou Invitational bettered her own school record in the event and earned the Riverside, California native a NCAA 'B' cut effort. Vincent also holds the second-fastest MW time in the 200 butterfly, touching the wall in 2:00.32 at the same event, and sits third in the 100 backstroke rankings with a time of 54.76.
Senior McKenna Meyer holds a three-second advantage over conference competition in the 400 individual medley (IM), setting the MW's best mark this season at the Mizzou Invitational with a time of 4:15.45. The conference's defending 400 IM champion also excelled in the 200 IM throughout the regular season, sitting third in the conference laurels with a time of 2:01.07 set at the same event.
On the springboard, 2019 MW Diver of the Year and three-time conference diver of the week sophomore Ximena Lechuga Gonzalez holds the conference's top marks on both the 1- and 3-meter dives with her efforts on senior day against the University of San Diego, scoring a 383.03 on the 3-meter and a 327.15 on the 1-meter. Not only does she lead the Mountain West this season in both events, but those performances also set new program-best marks, solidifying Gonzalez as one of the best to ever dive for the Aztecs. Gonzalez has also seen success on the platform dive, holding the MW's fifth-best effort this season with her score of 253.80 at the NAU Diving Invitational #1.
Also seeing success for the Aztecs on the diving board is senior Marie Yacopino, sitting ninth on the conference's 3-meter rankings with her performance against the Toreros, scoring a career-best 339.38.
The battle for the conference crown officially kicks off today at 12:30 p.m. CT with the 1-meter springboard preliminary heats.
The event will be streamed on FloSwimming and live results will be available on GoAztecs.com.
