Close Call for Conference Crown

Wednesday, February 14

Lewisville, Texas

8:00 AM

California Baptist University

RMAC Championships

Close Call for Conference Crown

2/17/2018 7:44:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving, Swimming and Diving

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RESULTS

LEWISVILLE, Texas – California Baptist University never lost hope at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships, even when it was trailing in points. The Lancers came all the way back from a 18.5-point deficit to win the conference title and leave the RMAC as five-time champions when they were a member from 2014-18.

CBU swept both the men's and women's RMAC championships for the second time after they did so in 2016. The Lancers leave the conference having gone seven-for-10 in RMAC team titles since they joined the conference in 2014. CBU will compete in NCAA Division I and the Western Athletic Conference next season.

It all came down to the final race of the week, though, as the Lancers went into the final event of the meet – the 400-yard freestyle relay with an 11.5-point lead on second-place Colorado Mesa. CBU secured the third-place finish it needed in the event to hold off the Mavericks.

Emily Longfellow, Christie Halverson, Grace Oeser and Sofia Petrenko took third in the race with D-II consideration time of three minutes, 25.74 seconds to give their team 32 points. The Lancers' B relay of Robin Smallwood, Ariahn Givens, Mackeznie Mergel and Hannah Parson took 11^th for 14 more big points.

The Lancers secured the conference crown by 5.5 points, with a 931 total to hold Colorado Mesa (925.5) in the runner-up position. Oklahoma Baptist took third with an 869 total. In all, CBU had seven individual conference championships this week and added one more on Saturday when true freshman Buse Topcu won her third individual RMAC title of the week and was named the RMAC Freshman of the Year as a result.

Saturday marked the second day in a row Topcu made history and shattered RMAC and CBU records while picking up an automatic qualifying time – this time in the 1650-yard freestyle. She won the race in 16 minutes, 34.92 seconds, which far surpassed the previous RMAC (17:00.30), CBU (16:39.50) records and automatic time (16:43.45).

Mia Woods of Colorado School of Mines was never able to make it interesting as the runner-up in the race was almost 47 seconds behind Topcu in second place. Mergel joined Topcu on the podium in the 1650 free when she took third in (17:19.05), while Oeser also posted a consideration time in taking fourth (17:25.97).

Smallwood and Alex Wolf put together big second and fourth-place finishes in the 200 breaststroke. Smallwood nabbed the runner-up position with a consideration time of 2:19.78, while Wolf posted a B cut, as well, with a 2:20.17. Melody Coleman won the consolation final in 2:21.86 for ninth place, while Taylor Dowden took 12^th (2:25.10).

Andrea Laliena (2:03.57) and Halverson (2:04.93) took fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 200 backstroke, which included a 10^th-place swim from Petrenko (2:06.25) and 13^th-place swim from Kylie Morrison (2:07.67).

Longfelllow secured a top-five swim for the Lancers in the 100 free in a consideration time of 51.54, while Parson won that consolation final to take ninth (52.31). Morgan Giordano (17:39.22) and Tessa Olson (17:48.44) also took seventh and eighth in the 1650 free.