WVU Breaks Two School Records to Open Big 12s

Wednesday, February 27

Austin, Texas

11:00 a.m.

West Virginia University

Big 12 Championship

Photo by: Liz Parke

February 27, 2019 07:23 PM | Men's Swimming & Diving, Women's Swimming & Diving

Wednesday's Results

By: Joe Mitchin

AUSTIN, Texas – The West Virginia University men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened competition at the 2019 Big 12 Swimming and Diving Championship, at the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center, in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday.

The Mountaineers wasted no time getting the four-day championship meet started in a big way, as the teams combined to break a pair of school records. First, senior Emma Harris logged a time of 2:09.93 in the women's 200 breaststroke time trial, breaking her own WVU record of 2:10.14 from 2018.

On the men's side, the Mountaineers' 200 medley relay team, comprised of sophomore Angelo Russo, senior Jake Armstrong, junior Sam Neaveill and senior Merwane El Merini, registered a WVU-best time of 1:24.94 in a second-place finish. The mark took down the previous record time of 1:25.97, which was set last season.

In all, West Virginia earned one silver and three bronze medals on the opening night of competition.

"I think our 200 medley relays were very strong," WVU coach Vic Riggs said. "Our guys went about a second faster than where we were last year, and that relay just continues to improve. The women had the second-fastest (time) all-time, and that was a really nice start for them."

Wednesday also featured the men's 1-meter diving competition. Freshman PJ Lenz registered a score of 302.10 for third place, while freshman Nick Cover finished fourth with a score of 298.25. Redshirt freshman Jacob Cardinal Tremblay (294.60) took fifth, while sophomore Caleb Keck (231.35) finished in sixth place.

All four divers reached the podium, with Lenz grabbing All-Big 12 First Team honors.

"It was a great first day for the divers," WVU diving coach Michael Grapner said. "It was fun to watch them prepare for the meet and finally be able to compete. With such a young group, I wasn't really sure what to expect, but they all did very well. PJ has come so far from the beginning of the year to now. I'm looking forward to the rest of the week."

Wednesday's finals session opened with the women's 200 medley relay, where the Mountaineer team of sophomore Ally VanNetta, Harris, junior Julia Nilton and sophomore Giselle Gursoy took fourth place in a time of 1:40.18.

After the men's performance in the 200 medley relay, WVU secured a pair of third-place, bronze-medal finishes in the 800 freestyle relays. For the women, junior Morgan Bullock, Gursoy and freshmen Lauryn Kallay and Reka Kovacs earned a time of 7:16.20.

For the men, sophomore Max Gustafson, juniors Trayton Saladin and Ryan Kelly and senior Drew Damich took third place in 6:35.38.

"(The men) didn't get off to a great start in the 800, and we played catch-up the rest of the way," Riggs said. "I think the women just over-swam the front ends a little bit, and they might have had a few jitters in them. Hopefully, we'll get all those out tomorrow."

Following the first day of competition, the Mountaineer men sit in first place with 124 points. The women's team is in fourth place with 62 points.

Earlier in the day, four Mountaineers participated in time trials. Along with Harris' school-record performance, two others – Damich and sophomore David Dixon – recorded season-best times. Damich went 44.48 in the men's 100 freestyle, while Dixon tallied a 1:42.62 in the men's 200 butterfly.

Bullock also competed, clocking a 1:58.06 in the women's 200 butterfly.

Competition at the Big 12 Championship continues on Thursday, with the preliminaries session set to begin at 11 a.m. ET. Diving is scheduled to start at 2 p.m., with the finals session set for 7 p.m.

FloSports is providing live video coverage of all four days of the meet on FloSwimming.com. Fans can also follow along with the Mountaineers by visiting the championship central webpage, which features the meet schedule, live results, ticket information and more.

For more information on the Mountaineers, visit WVUsports.com and follow WVUSwimDive on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.