Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Swimming Heads to Texas Invitational

Jasmine Alkadi

By Katie Seaton, Swimming World College Intern

HONOLULU – A select few teams from Mountain Pacific Sports Federation swimming (coed teams: Cal Poly, UC Santa Barbara, Hawaii, BYU, Pacific. Women’s team’s: UC Davis, San Diego and Loyola Marymount) will travel to Texas to race some of the fastest NCAA Division I programs in the country. Many teams will take two back-to-back bye weekends after achieving personal bests in their mid-season taper races at the A3 Performance Invitational the week of Nov. 19.

A Glance Back:

Pacific

Nov. 21, the Lady Tigers swept nine of the twelve individual events against Cal State East Bay. Pacific’s women’s team took first and second in both the 400 medley relay and the 200 free relay. MPSF swimmer of the week in October, Margaux Verger Gourson, accomplished another personal best in the 1000 free with a 10:01.23 and a season best of 4:52.92 in the 500 free, which is a close five seconds from the NCAA B cut. At the rate she continues to improve, Sophomore Gourson is likely to accomplish the NCAA B cut before or during the MPSF conference meet in February of 2015.

A3 Invitational:
UC Santa Barbara

UCSB’s men’s team swept the competition, winning the invitational scoring 1911 points, with an over 600 point lead above UC San Diego, the second place men’s team. The men had many top eight finishes along with several first places finishes. Senior Wade Allen dominated the competition, winning all three of his individual events. He placed first in the 50 free (19.74), 100 free (44.02) and 100 fly (47.06). His teammates Mickey Mowrey and Dylan Kubick also helped further the Gaucho’s first place lead with wins in the 200 IM and 200 fly, respectively. One of the most impressive swims of the meet was freshman Billy Mullis’ win in the 100 backstroke, with a 50.03.

The Lady Gauchos performed well too, placing third in the meet behind top-tier Division I programs SDSU and UCLA. Senior Katie Records swam a personal best in the 200 IM with a 2:00.91 that placed her in second place, just short of SDSU’s Natilee Ruiz. Records also won the 200 breast with a 2:13.56, .15 shy of her best time. The Gauchos continue to build fast breaststrokers as four of the UCSB women placed in the top ten in the 200 breast alongside teammate Katie Records. Lady Gaucho Heren Alanis captured a win at the A3 invite with a time of 4:15.46 in the 400 IM and second with a time of 4:49.93 in the 500free, which is also an NCAA B cut.

Hawaii

The Rainbow Warriors were missing their top eight men’s team who will be competing at the Texas Invitational this weekend. Without their fastest men, Hawaii still placed sixth of the nine teams, and the Rainbow Wahine placed fourth behind UCSB. Jasmine Alkhaldi had standout performances in the freestyle events. She was the highest scorer for the team followed by freshman Kira Webster who placed third in the 500 free (4:53.23) and second in the 1650 free (16:45.31).

Cal Poly

The men’s team placed third at the invite behind Santa Barbara and UC San Diego. Caleb Davies and Paolo Stanchi both broke school records at the A3 Invite. Sophomore Davies touched second in the 100 free behind UCSB’s Allen with a 44.70, breaking the 4-year-old Cal Poly record. Stanchi set the school record in the 200 breast placing second with a 1:58.41.The Lady Mustangs placed seventh of the 15 teams with freshman Sage Speak who finished eighth in the 200 breast with a personal best of 2:18.97. Her teammate Sophia Kuvan also posted a personal best in the 500 free with a 4:54.29.

Upcoming Schedule:

December 4-6: BYU, UC Davis, UCSB and Hawaii swim at the Texas Invitational.
December 4-6: Cal Poly swims at Winter Nationals in North Carolina.

Texas Invite:

This weekend a select group from BYU, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara and eight swimmers from Hawaii’s men’s team will represent the MPSF conference against Texas, USC, Arizona, BYU, Wisconsin, Utah, Wyoming, Harvard, Incarnate Word, Hawai’i (men), UC Davis (women) and Notre Dame (women). BYU and UC Davis have not competed the last two weekends in preparation for this weekend of fast competition. UCSB on the other hand is coming of off a fast weekend at the A3 invitational in hopes that they will be just as successful. The men and women will be facing some of the fastest competition they have swam against all season.

MPSF Swimmer of the Week for November 26-December 3:

The Rainbows swept the athlete of the week awards with their performances at the invitationals on November 19-22. Senior Jasmine Alkhaldi took first place with and an NCAA B cut in the 200 free at the A3 Invite. Aklhaldi also continues to hold the fastest times swam in the MPSF conference in the 50 free (22.83), 100 free (49.24) and 200 free (1:46.93). Meanwhile, her teammate and diver Amund Gismervic set a Norwegian and UH record after scoring 440.30 points at the Texas Invitational. The Rainbow Warrior continues to lead conference with the highest scores in the one-meter and three meter dives, as well as platform.

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