Northern Colorado, BYU Win MPSF Open Water Titles
The Northern Colorado women and the BYU men claimed Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Open Water Championships at the Oct. 17 event.
The meet, staged for the fourth time, was at the Marine Stadium in Long Beach. North Colorado scored 68 points in the women’s 5,000 free and 64 by winning the 2,000-meter relay for a total of 132 that edged the 115 from Washington State. UC Santa Barbara was third with 81 points, three up on California Baptist. Rice, which won last year, didn’t take part.
On the men’s side, BYU tallied 137 points, with 73 in the 5,000 and first-place in the 2,000-free relay. Grand Canyon was second with 106 points, while Whitter was third. California Baptist had won the last two men’s team titles, but its program was dropped in January.
Whitter’s Thomas Langlois won the 5K for the third straight year, clocking in at 57 minutes, 55 seconds. BYU was second with Tanner Nelson in 59:11.7, then Gavin Willyerd in 59:49.2. Nelson and Willyerd helped BYU win the relay in 24:13.9, 30 seconds ahead of Grand Canyon with Whittier third.
The women’s title went to Alisee Pisane of USC in 1:01.50.4. She pulled away from Kyra Rabess of Northern Colorado, who was second in 1:01.52.8. Vivien Nett was third for Washington State.
Northern Colorado won the relay in 26:00.7, nearly five seconds up on BYU, which outsprinted Washington State for second by just a second.