Aztecs Surge Into Second Place on Final Day of Hawkeye Invite

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Bolstered by three individual event titles, the San Diego State swim and dive program finished second at the Hawkeye Invitational on Saturday inside the University of Iowa’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center.

Mai McKenna (200 fly), Abby Storm (200 back) and Meredith Smithbaker (100 free) were victorious in their respective races, with all three swimmers logging NCAA “B” cut times.

Aided by those results, the Aztecs surged into the second spot with 1,238 team points, trailing first-place Nebraska (1,368 pts), while Arkansas (1,187 pts) slipped into third, followed by Illinois (987.5 pts) and host Iowa (879 pts). Elsewhere, Kansas (809 pts) landed in the sixth position, while Colorado State (631 pts), Iowa State (533.5 pts) and Northern Iowa (429 pts) rounded out the field.

Since the beginning of the 2017-18 season, San Diego State has competed in 17 regular-season invitational meets and has finished outside of the top three just once during that span, logging four first-place performances, 10 second-place efforts and a pair of third-place results.

In the “A” finals of the 200 butterfly, McKenna completed the event with a career-fast swim of 1:58.46, which ranks fourth in school history, while Charlotte Sevin set a collegiate best as well with a clocking of 2:02.70 to finish sixth. In addition, Emily Tenczar was triumphant in “B” finals of the event after touching the wall at 2:01.18.

Storm took home her second individual crown of the weekend in the “A” finals of the 200 backstroke with a career-fast performance of 1:55.11, which ranks third on the program’s all-time charts. Earlier in the “B” finals, Reka Nyiradi emerged triumphant with a swim of 1:58.81, while Liv Peebles followed in the third spot at 2:00.34.

Not to be outdone, Smithbaker captured her second title of the meet in the “A’’ finals of the 100 freestyle with a winning time of 48.83, while Alli Mannn was eighth after completing a sprint of 49.84. The Scarlet and Black  placed three swimmers in the “B” finals as well, where Wilma Johansson (49.94) claimed top honors, followed by Kaydence Bispo (50.38) and Avery Turney (50.98) finished third and sixth, respectively.

Two Aztec competitors also registered NCAA “B” cut times in the “A” finals of the 200 breaststroke, where Moa Bergdahl logged a third-place effort of 2:12.57, followed closely by teammate Christiana Williams, who clocked in at 2:12.64, while Elisa Branca contributed to SDSU’s point-total with an eighth-place swim of 2:18.19 in the “B” finals.

Additionally, SDSU received a second-place performance in “A” finals of the platform diving event from Valentina Lopez Arevalo, who surpassed an NCAA zone qualifying mark with 285.00 points, while Alina Skrocki (187.15) and Olivia Zamudio (178.00) placed seventh and eighth in the “B” finals, respectively.

In the 400 freestyle relay, Bispo joined forces with Mann, Johansson and Smithbaker for a third-place finish of 3:19.26, while the combo of Turney, Nyiradi, Bergdahl and Storm took fifth at 3:22.83, although their result was scored as an exhibition.

Earlier in the day, Summer West completed a swim of 17:26.25 in the 1650 freestyle to finish in the 17th position.

San Diego State divers will return to action for the Riverside Diving Invitational, Dec. 6-7, in Riverside, California. The Aztecs will reconvene with a full squad for a double dual meet vs. New Mexico and Pepperdine at Aztec Aquaplex on Thursday, Jan. 2, beginning at 2 p.m. PT.