Women place second, men third at MPSF Championships

LOS ANGELES – After four hard-fought days at the MPSF Swimming and Diving Championships, the women finished in second with a score of 435.5 and the men placed third with a score of 598.

UNLV won the men’s championship with a final score of 613 and on the women’s side UC Davis won with a score of 673.5.

“I'm proud of the way we competed this weekend,” head coach John Brooks said. “We're thankful for all the seniors and the hard work they put in the past four years, we're going to miss them. Congrats to the teams that won tonight. We wish we could have the 200 medley relay back because those points would have helped us win the meet. It was exciting to see all the school records we broke this weekend, we did a great job as a team.”

In the final event of the evening, the 400 free relay, the men’s squad of Payton Sorenson, Garret Beaman, Preston Jenkins and Brent Murray placed first with a time of 2:55.02 to set a new meet and school record. They topped the previous meet record by more than three seconds. The women’s team of Alexandria Sorensen, Andrea Grant, Natalie Bennion and Kimberly Welch Doroghian placed fourth with a time of 3:24.13.

The first event of the evening was the 1650 free. Alexandra Dodds placed fourth with her time of 16:55.86 and Alia Welsh finished in seventh with a time of 17:06.64. Freshman Shawn Western placed ninth for the men (15:34.03).

Hailey Campbell repeated as MPSF champion in the 200 back with a time of 1:57.26. Ciera Marsh placed sixth with a time of 2:01.64. Jenkins placed second in the men's final with a time of 1:43.41 and Western placed fifth in the consolation final with a time of 1:49.29.

In the 100 free, the men placed third, fourth and fifth. Sorenson placed third with a time of 43.90, Beaman placed fourth with a time of 44.06 and Murray placed fifth with a time of 44.53. On the women’s side, Sorensen finished fourth with a time of 50.69 and Grant grabbed the seventh spot with a time of 51.14. Bennion placed fourth in the consolation finals with a time of 51.51 and Taryn Toolson Lewis placed sixth with a time of 51.84.

Following the 100 free, Londyn Clawson placed fifth with a time of 2:15.25 and Kassandra Bispo placed eighth with a time of 2:20.10 in the 200 breast. Hayden Palmer placed fifth with a time of 2:00.69 and Andrew Rutherfurd placed first in the consolation finals with a time of 2:00.31.

David Armstrong placed sixth with a time of 1:48.30 in the 200 fly finals. Doroghian placed second with a time of 2:01.26 and Jessica Ampuero placed eighth with a time of 2:06.89 in the consolation finals.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – Nicholas Suder placed third and Dayna Christensen placed fourth in the finals of the platform Saturday at the MPSF Diving Championships at the Air Force Academy.

"We're happy with the way our divers competed for us this weekend," Brooks said. "Even though we were at different venues the whole time, they preformed well and really dove well and gave us a lot of points."

Suder scored 274.50 in the finals to earn his third-place finish and Trayton Speth scored 210.05 to finish eighth. Matt Hopper scored 231.80 points to finish sixth in the consolation finals.

Suder scored 56 points, Hopper had 25 points, Speth had 20 points and David Corless had 14 points this weekend.

Raleigh Williams Taylor and Mackenzie Rands joined Christensen in the finals for the women. Christensen scored 213.10 points to claim the No. 4 finish while Taylor scored 193.45 to finish sixth and Rands scored 189.60 to finish in seventh. In the consolation finals, Haley Francois scored 135.15 to finish eighth.

Christensen scored 48 points, Taylor scored 45 points, Rands scored 35 points and Francois scored 16 points throughout the Championships.

Both the men and the women have a couple weeks off to prepare for the Zone Diving meet March 14-16 at the USAFA Natatorium in Colorado Springs, Colo.