Swimming and Diving Wins MW Championship
It was the second consecutive conference title for the Aztecs.
For the second consecutive year, the San Diego State University swimming and diving team won the Mountain West Conference championship. The Aztecs collected 1,463.50 points, the most in conference championship history, to successfully defend their conference crown.
"It was really a wonderful team earned championship," said associate head coach Steve Allnutt. "The swimmers and divers really came together; we had the largest diving squad there and every one of the divers scored points and made a huge impact."
The team also excelled in the full run of swimming events.
“In swimming, the way to show how good you are is in your relay efforts,” Allnutt said, “and we were able to win all five of them for just the second time in school history (third in the conference's history). The team's attitude and effort were amazing from the first race to the last. Our seniors lead our team with class and I'm proud to send them out with their second championship in four years.”
SDSU collected its fifth conference title and registered its first ever back-to-back titles in the program's history. Junior Klara Thormalm was named Swimmer of the Meet after collecting three individual titles (50-meter free, 100 breast, 200 breast) and swimming in four of the Aztecs' championship-winning relay teams (200 medley, 400 medley, 200 free, 400 free). The Aztecs took home eight individual titles while sweeping all five relay events for just the third time in conference history.
Thormalm made a mark in the record books for her 200 breast efforts Saturday, as she and sophomore Kristina Murphy made the championship finals with NCAA 'B' cuts efforts of 2:11.01 and 2:13.14, respectively.
Thormalm's championship heat swim of 2:08.30 not only led the junior to top the podium but set a new conference record in the event and topped the previous SDSU program record by over two seconds. Murphy finished sixth in the championship final with a time of 2:12.15.
Senior Morganne McKennan qualified for the 'B' finals with the 13th-best time in prelims and went on to secure the top finish (ninth overall) in the secondary finals heat with a time of 2:15.35.
Sophomore Ximena Lechuga Gonzalez continued her dominance on the springboard as she qualified for her third championship finals (of the three possible) of the conference title chase with a score of 261.35 in the preliminary platform diving competition. Her finals score of 292.30 earned her a bronze medal as well as the best score on the platform dive in program history by more than 30 points. The sophomore now holds the school records on the 1-meter, 3-meter, and platform dives.
The Aztecs closed out their incredible championship performance with Alma Thormalm, Klara Thormalm, Mia Ryan and McKenna Meyer recording the top 400 medley time of 3:17.24, the fourth-best swim in conference history and the second-fastest performance in the SDSU record books.
SDSU now readies for postseason action, with all seven Aztec divers prepping for the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships March 9-11 in Seattle, Washington. Courtney Vincent and McKennan alongside Klara Thormalm all earned direct individual invites to the NCAA Championships while the Aztecs' 200 medley relay of Vincent, Ferrin, Alma Thormalm and Klara Thormalm has also qualified for the national championship competition.
Additional SDSU swimmers have marks that could qualify them for the national event and will be announced as they are notified of their invitations. The Aztecs who have solidified their tickets to the national championship now prep for the event scheduled to begin March 18 in Atlanta, Georgia.
