Nevada maintained its lead in team scoring during Day Two of the 2016 Mountain West Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at the Texas A&M Natatorium in College Station, Texas with 284 points through eight events. Boise State sits in second place with 254.5 points, followed by San Diego State in third with 213. UNLV currently sits in fourth place with 161 points and Wyoming follows in fifth at 142. San José State is sixth in the standings with 126 points, followed by New Mexico (99.5), Air Force (95), Colorado State (92) and Fresno State (70).
The Nevada duo of Krysta Palmer and Sharae Zheng finished 1-2 in the 3-meter springboard on Thursday night. Zheng, a rookie for the Wolf Pack, edged out the senior, Palmer, for the win by .15 points with a Mountain West Championship record 396.35. Palmer finished with a 396.20 after breaking the six-year old mark of 359.50 set by Tawni Jones of BYU at the 2010 MW Championships during the prelims (372.15).
Air Force junior Genevieve Miller set a new Mountain West standard in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:40.15 for the victory. Miller surpassed the overall league record she set earlier in the day of 4:40.30 during the preliminary round. She also became the first three-time winner in the event. Miller edged out runner-up Emma Chard, a sophomore at Boise State, by .06 seconds in the finals. Chard’s time of 4:40.21, along with Miller’s mark, are NCAA ‘B’ cuts. San José State senior Riley Spitser (4:44.95) and Boise State junior Felicity Cann (4:47.22) also posted ‘B’ cuts.
Boise State senior Sam Wicks established a Mountain West Championship record in the 200-yard individual medley on Thursday, touching the wall in 1:57.18 in the finals. Wicks’ time beat out the previous mark of 1:57.29 set by SDSU’s Mikaela Macklin at the 2014 MW Championships. Seven additional swimmers recorded NCAA ‘B’ cut times in the finals. Nevada senior Yawen Li finished second with a time of 1:59.31 and junior teammate Teresa Baerens was third at 1:59.40.
San Diego State’s Taylor Johnson won the 50-yard freestyle in a time of 22.16. She led a group of nine swimmers with NCAA ‘B’ cut marks. Wyoming senior Emily Ridout finished second with a time of 22.42, followed by Boise State junior Katelyn Martin and New Mexico sophomore Morgan Ginnis tied for third in 22.46.
Boise State won its third straight relay of the meet on Thursday night, posting an NCAA qualifying mark of 1:28.93 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. San Diego State provisionally qualified for the national championships, taking second in 1:29.25, while Wyoming finished third at 1:29.96.
Day three begins with the 400-yard individual medley preliminaries at 11 a.m. CT. The finals competition starts at 6:30 p.m. CT with the 400-yard medley relay. The 2016 MW Women’s Swimming & Diving Championships conclude Saturday, February 20.
