On Saturday, Feb. 19, the University of Denver men’s and women’s swim team executed a strong performance in the water, earning the ninth consecutive league championship for the women and the eighth title overall for the men.
The final results put Denver in the lead by hundreds, the women’s team accumulating 1079.50 points and the men amassing 987. In second place was South Dakota, with 748 for the women and 723 for the men.
On Wednesday night, DU started the championship strong with a first-place finish in the Women’s 200-meter medley, the women’s 800-meter freestyle relay and the men’s 800-meter freestyle relay. For the men’s 800 meter relay, freshman Kieran Watson (Mercer Island, Wash.), freshman Dylan Wright (Cape Town, South Africa), junior Riley Babson (Vail, Ariz.) and Marco Nosack (Beaverton, Ore.) earned a time of 6:35.30, placing them at the top of the podium.
In the women’s relay of the same distance, graduate Emily Pincus (Champlin Minn.), sophomore Ines Marin (Santiago, Chile), senior Livi Schmid (Fairfax Station, Va.) and Aysia Leckie (Georgetown, Ontario) earned a time of 7:19.05, securing the win.
Ammar Hassan (6th of October, Egypt) set the Summit League Championship record, his first of two for the championship, with his one-meter dive, scoring 348.55 points. On Friday night, Hassan would round out the tournament with a 384.80-point three-meter dive, setting another Summit League Championship record. Hassan was awarded the Diving Championship MVP of the tournament for his performance.
On Thursday night, the individual finals began, and DU secured a score of wins. In the women’s 500-meter freestyle, senior Angie Lindsay (Beaverton, Ore.) won the final with a time of 4:25.15, and Wright took the men’s with a time of 4:25.22. DU also swept the men’s and women’s IM, Jessica Maeda (Tigard, Ore.) and Nosack winning the race with respective times of 2:02.15 and 1:47.11.
Leckie set the NCAA B Standard with a time of 22.66 in the women’s 50-meter freestyle. The DU Swim captain would go on to win the Women’s Swimming Championship MVP after additional first-place finishes in the 100- and 200-meter freestyle, cementing her dominance of the stroke.
In the women’s 400-meter medley, redshirt junior Natalie Arky (Highlands Ranch, Colo.), Maeda, Marin and Remington would all combine for a time of 3:40.77, winning the event for DU.
On Friday and Saturday night, Wright would further add to DU’s accolades by winning the men’s 200-meter backstroke, the men’s 200-meter freestyle and the Newcomer of the Championship award for DU. Kieran Watson would set the NCAA Qualifying B Standard for the men’s 1650-meter freestyle with a time of 15:25.03. DU swept the podium for the event with Babson, freshman Will Melsha (Blaine, Minn.), freshman Joseph Purdy (Boulder City, Nev.) and Connor Hughes (Cary, N.C.) taking second, third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
In the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, Maeda took first with a time of 2:13.57 with fellow swimmers, junior Sophia Bricker (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and freshman Peyton Mullowney (Ottawa, Ontario) close behind at third and fourth. In the men’s event, another podium was swept by DU as Nosack, sophomore Alex Lynch (Austin Texas), and freshman Luca Foord (Portland, Ore.) placed first, second and third.
Freshman Maya Belanger (San Diego, Calif.) topped the women’s three-meter dive with an NCAA qualifying score of 309.80. Fellow diver and redshirt senior Zora Opalka (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) also qualified with a score of 283.60, finishing in third place.
DU swim came first in every team title at the championship, sweeping the competition, which included the universities of South Dakota, Omaha, South Dakota State, St. Thomas and Eastern Illinois.
Coming off of an extremely successful run at the Summit League Championships, the competition is set to increase for DU Swim and Dive. On March 7, the diving team will compete at the NCAA Zone E Diving Championships, and on March 16, DU swim will compete in the NCAA Championship.
