GCU Men's Swimming Takes First, Women Second, at Husky Invite

Friday, December 2

Federal Way, WA

10:30 a.m.

Grand Canyon

Husky Invitational

Jaclynn Branning

Photo by: Deb Schaffer

GCU Men's Swimming Takes First, Women Second, at Husky Invite

12/4/2011 8:56:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Women's Swimming and Diving

The Grand Canyon University swim teams entered the 63^rd Annual Husky Invitational in Federal Way, Wash. with high aspirations and at its conclusion probably couldn’t have envisioned it going much better.

GCU took first in the men's competition, eking out a 1-point win over British Columbia, 1578-1577. The women placed second, falling 1195.5-1151.5 British Columbia.

“British Columbia is essentially the Canadian equivalent of a good D-I mid-major team and we knew they would make the team race very interesting,” said head coach Steve Schaffer. “The guys really stepped up in the last few events to get the points we needed to win, and our girls came back very strong on the last day to cut BC's lead by more than half.”

Ivan Nechunaev was the meet high-point winner for the men. The men and women combined for 27 new team records, 94 new or improved NCAA Cuts and 16 NCAA A cuts (11 individual, 5 relay).

As was the case in the first two nights, NCAA A cut times and school record swims were in abundance this evening. The ‘Lopes tossed in a Husky Invitational record to top it off.

Eetu Karvonen showed why he will tough to beat at the NCAA Championships, setting a meet and school record 1:57.35 in the 200 breast. The A cut time surpassed the previous school record by six seconds. He beat the meet record by half a second, which was held by Washington’s Luke Ekhoff (Dec. 8, 2002).

Brian Morrison took second in the 200 breast with a 2:02.20. He swam an A cut time of 2:01.66 in the final. Both of Morrison’s swims would have eclipsed the previous GCU record.

Buddy Turner finished second in the 100 free, posting an A cut time of 44.09. Turner’s time missed out on the school record by .01 of a second. Michael Branning finished third (45.16) and Artem Tretiakov fifth (45.26).

Everton Kida and Nechunaev added school record swims for the men as well. Kida finished second in the 200 back (1:49.04), while Nechunaev took first in the 200 fly (1:47.67). Both times were just shy of the A Cut standard, but will be competitive to gain entry into the NCAA Championships.

The much anticipated men’s 400 free relay team of Tretiakov, Turner, Tom Wahlers and Branning won with an A cut time of 2:57.59. The time was just over a second slower than the school record and second-fastest ever NCAA D-II time that the ‘Lopes set at the NCAA’s last year.

Mychala Lynch added to her impressive weekend, placing fifth in the 100 free with a school record 50.77.

Jaclyn Branning put her name in the record books again this evening, posting a 2:21.98 in the 200 breast. The time was nearly five seconds faster than the previous school high.

The women’s 400 free relay team of Stacey Rudman, Mychala Lynch, Catherine Polito and Lynch set a new school record and A cut mark of 3:25.38 to place second.

“This was a fantastic meet for us and sets us up very well for the NCAA championships,” added Schaffer. “We will add more kids to the NCAA team later in the season at our conference meet, but getting this many kids this early (11 total swimmers) is a huge success in setting us up to be able to compete for team titles at NCAA’s. Perhaps even more impressive was the quality of our swims. We will have several number 1 rankings in individual events and relays when the meet results are compiled this week.”

The swim teams return home to face California Baptist on Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. at the Brophy Sports Complex pool in Phoenix.

Full meet results can be viewed here.