SAN LUIS OBISPO, CALIF.— Day two of the MPSF Championships proved to be an exciting one for the University of Hawaii swim and dive team as it was the first day the swimmers were involved leading to close finishes in the 200 medley relay and the 800 free relay.
“Congratulations go out to women’s 200 medley team as they kick-started the momentum of the day for us in the pool,” said head coach Elliot Ptasnik in a press release. “But such a tremendous showing by our men’s 800 free relay team, winning the event at the conference championships for the first time in 12 years. A big accomplishment for a group that put in so much time to improve and get to this point. I’m proud of how we started; it was an exciting day, it’ll be an exciting week, and we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
UH currently sits in a tie, 74-74, with BYU for the top spot of the team rankings on the women’s side, while on the men’s side, BYU holds a slight edge at 74-70.
Thursday will be the first day with individual events and will be another test for both the men’s and women’s squad.
Swimming
A trio of juniors in John Clark, Ian Venter, and Talon Lindquist teamed up with sophomore Timothy Gallagher to break a streak of 12 years since the Rainbow Warriors captured the 800 free relay gold at a conference championship, clocking in at 6:28.98. The ‘Bows were neck and neck with BYU but touched the wall at just a second before second-place BYU.
The women’s 200 medley relay was another close heat between UH and BYU as the Rainbow Wahine took the first place finish at 1:38.89. The squad was senior-heavy, featuring Karolina Hajkova, Anna Kotonen, and Lucia Lassman as sophomore Anna Friedrich served as the anchor.
Diving
For the second consecutive day, UH diving proved to be the team to beat, taking first place finishes in the women’s one-meter and the men’s three-meter.
Sophomore claimed her second victory, winning the one-meter with a score of 315.90, repeating what she did on day one in the three-meter by claiming the event for the second consecutive year.
Junior Max Burman picked up a first-place finish and tallied a score of 418.10, narrowly beating out Mickey Strauss of BYU at 416.85. The mark by Burman was not only the winning score at the MPSF Championships but etched him in the record books as the second-highest score in the event in program history.
Wednesday was the final day of competition for the diving team as Platform will not be a featured event in the 2021 championships.