California Baptist University
Western Athletic Conference Championships
Fabiani and Jimenez Make WAC History on Championship Saturday
2/25/2023 9:38:00 PM | Swimming and Diving
EDINBURG – California Baptist University finished the 2023 Western Athletic Conference Swim and Dive Championships on Saturday night with massive results that will live in the WAC history books for a while.
The men bested their pre-meet poll prediction of fourth place, finishing the event in third place with a score of 565 points. UNLV defended its team title with 838 points, with Grand Canyon claiming second place with 627.5 points. The women closed out this year's meet in sixth place out of eight teams with a score of 300 points. Northern Arizona claimed their 10th- straight conference championship with 835 points, followed by Grand Canyon (605) and Northern Colorado (493) in second and third place, respectively.
The Lancers men's dive team achieved a monumental accomplishment on Saturday night by sweeping the platform event. Gael Jimenez completed the championship sweep, winning the platform event on his final dive with a score of 374.25. Evan Honer took second in the event with his final score of 361.95. John Angelovic secured the sweep with his best outing of the season, posting a score of 332.45 to earn his first WAC Championship medal.
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HE HAS DONE IT! Gael Jimenez becomes just the second men's diver in WAC history to sweep all three events at the same championship! He joins teammate Evan Honer on that elite list! Jimenez, Honer, and John Angelovic sweep the platform podium!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/oisUxHI8eh— California Baptist Swim/Dive (@CBUswim) February 26, 2023
With Saturday's win, Jimenez becomes just the second men's diver to sweep the championship trifecta. He joins teammate Evan Honer as the only men in WAC history to claim the accomplishment. Honer did first in 2021.
Records were broken between the lane lines as well. First to fall was the CBU program record in the men's 1,650 freestyle as freshman Mark Kovacsics won his first WAC gold by nearly a 20-second margin. His time of 15:01.05 bested his school record, which previously stood at 15:10.98.
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Mark Kovacsics finishes nearly 20 seconds ahead of the field to earn his first gold medal in the 1650 free!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/l7oGadMtXn— California Baptist Swim/Dive (@CBUswim) February 26, 2023
Remi Fabiani also set a new program record on Saturday and smashed a WAC record that had stood since 1997. The 100 freestyle race was worth the price of admission alone as Fabiani, having already won the 50 free, was going up against Zhang Wen from Air Force, the winner of the 200 and 500 free. Wen qualified .07 seconds faster, but Fabiani would claim the gold over Wen by.11 seconds, finishing in a new record time of 42.21 seconds.
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Remi Fabiani collects his second gold of the meet in WAC record time! Fabiani is etched in the 100 Free history books with a time of 42.21!#LanceUp⚔️ pic.twitter.com/owkx8yoimy— California Baptist Swim/Dive (@CBUswim) February 26, 2023
Jonathan Reiter returned to the podium on Saturday night, earning silver in the 200 breaststroke while hitting a new personal best time of 1:55.54 in the process. Lydia Bartlett was the top finisher for the women on Saturday, taking 6th place in the 1650 free, a personal-best time that vaults her into the number seven spot in the program record book.
Championship awards such as Swimmer, Diver, and Coaches of the Meet are still to be voted on, so the results of those polls will be announced at a later date. While many Lancer athletes hit NCAA B cut times even before this weekend, but even more since Wednesday, the NCAA will announce the postseason invitations once all conference meets are finalized and sorted.
Players Mentioned
