Lancers Set Themselves Up for Exciting Finish

Isabella Rhodes and Mackenzie Degn relay

Photo by: Robert Jordan

Lancers Set Themselves Up for Exciting Finish

2/28/2020 2:05:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving, Swimming and Diving

By: Andrew Shortall, Director of Athletics Communications

HOUSTON – Four all-conference finishes, including a championship relay performance, and two new program records helped California Baptist University piece together a strong day three at the Western Athletic Conference Championships.

The Lancers opened Friday with a win in the 200-yard freestyle relay, had two top-three finishers in the 200 free and the third-place swimmer in the 100 backstroke at the CRWC Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston. CBU goes into the final day of the WAC Championships in second place with 379 points.

It will be a close race to the finish for the team title. Six-time defending WAC champion Northern Arizona leads the eight-team field with 432.5 points, while NM State is in third with 376. Grand Canyon and CSU Bakersfield round out the top five, with 364 and 292 points, respectively.

🥇🥇🥇

CBU starts day three of the @WACsports Championships with a win in the 200-free relay. Hannah Houlton, Rita Smirnova, Mackenzie Degn and Isabella Rhodes win in 1:31.26, which is a new program record by 1.63 seconds (1:32.89)!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/l20g8Q5YAb
— CBU Swimming & Diving (@CBUswim) February 28, 2020

An all-underclassmen relay team of freshmen Hannah Houlton Mackenzie Degn and sophomores Rita Smirnova and Isabella Rhodes won the 200-free relay with a CBU record time of one minute, 31.26 seconds. It was a 1.63 second improvement on the Lancers' previous record of 1:32.89 and .86 of a second in front of the runner-up from NM State (1:31.12).

CBU's biggest highlight in individual events came when Degn and Rebeca Oviedo finished second and third for all-conference honors in the 200 free. Degn touched first in 1:48.30, while Oviedo came in third in 1:49.27. Degn set a new personal record in the process, which was just off Oviedo's program record of 1:48.28 from last season.

🤜 DEGN & OVIEDO 🤛

CBU finishes 2⃣➖3⃣ in the 200-yard freestyle. Mackenzie Degn takes second with a PR of 1:48.30 and Rebeca Oviedo touches third in 1:49.27. Degn's time was just .02 of a second off Oviedo's Lancer record from last season (1:48.28). #LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/STYoSHmQE8
— CBU Swimming & Diving (@CBUswim) February 28, 2020

Emily Longfellow added another all-conference swim for the Lancers in the 100 back, as she took third in 55.30.

Rhodes set another new program record in the 100 butterfly when she took fourth place in 54.38. It bested the record of 54.74 set at altitude by Kristina Tchernyshev in 2017. Nicole Cienega took 12^th in the event for the Lancers in 55.52, which ranks third in CBU history.

🚨 RECORD ALERT 🚨

Isabella Rhodes set another program record in the 100 butterfly with a time of 54.38 seconds. It bested the previous CBU record of 54.74, which was set at altitude, and was good for fourth place in the @WACsports.#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/DxdB59pKkX
— CBU Swimming & Diving (@CBUswim) February 28, 2020

Four Lancers logged top-16 finishes in the 100 breaststroke. True freshman Faith Brazil took seventh in 1:03.64, while Alexa Melara, Emma Lindquist and Lauren McKenna all notched PRs to finish in the top-15. Melara's time of 1:04.06 ranks fourth in program history and was good for 10^th in the conference. Lindquist took 13^th in 1:04.14 and Melara was 15^th in 1:04.29, with those times ranking fifth and sixth in CBU's record books.

The divers logged three top-11 finishes on the 3-meter board. Kiree Lowe took fourth – her best-ever finish in the WAC – with a score of 257.70. Madeline Wiese took ninth (249.90) and Savannah Uhlir took 11^th(240.50).

Martha Aguilar provided another highlight moment for CBU when she took fifth in the 400 individual medley with a top-10 program time of 4:26.79. Alina Jungklaus (4:30.12) and Kylie Morrison (4:31.24) placed 13^th and 15^th, respectively, in the event.

All of Friday's events were timed finals of five different events for individual races. The entire day's schedule was thrown out of whack after Thursday's evening sessions were canceled due to a major water main break in the city of Houston that closed the University of Houston campus, which is hosting the WAC Championships. The University of Houston remained close on Friday, with the exception for the CRWC Natatorium, which was closed off to spectators.

The WAC is hoping to return to the prelims-finals format on Saturday, but will not be able to finalize its schedule until it receives confirmation from the University of Houston Friday evening.
Updates regarding the opening of the University of Houston can be found at http://alerts.uh.edu/. The WAC will post any further updates at WACsports.com and the WAC's Twitter and Facebook pages.

Thursday-Friday Results