WAC Championship Notes
LARAMIE, Wyo. – The Cowboys head to Houston, Texas, for the 2017 Western Athletic Conference Championships at the University of Houston CRWC Natatorium. The meet begins on Wednesday at 9:30 a.m. MT with diving preliminaries and runs through Saturday, concluding with the final session slated to begin at 5 p.m. MT.
Three Cowboys recorded the top time in the WAC in an individual event this season. Sophomore Jack Herron holds the top time in the 200 freestyle of 1:37.20. Senior Gabe Rooker’s time of 53.84 in the 100 breaststroke is the fastest of the year. Junior Wade Nelson clocked a 3:49.43 in the 400 individual medley, the top conference mark. Wyoming has at least one time in the top five in 11 of the 14 individual events. The group of Wyoming divers will look to earn valuable points for the Cowboys as well. Freshman Scotia Mullin will lead the group, after notching the second-best mark in school history on the platform (397.65) in his last outing.
Grand Canyon enters the conference championship with the top time in five individual events, the most of any WAC school, and one relay. Air Force holds three individual top times and the fastest mark in three relays. The Falcons will challenge Wyoming in the breaststroke, one of the team’s strongest events. Kevin Fanter of Air Force is the only swimmer in the field to swim a faster time than Gabe Rooker in a breaststroke event this season. Fanter’s season-best time in the 200 breaststroke of 1:56.85 edged out Rooker’s best of 1:57.45. Mark Nikolaev of Grand Canyon is the only WAC swimmer to post a faster time in an individual medley race than Nelson. Nikolaev’s time of 1:47.11 is over a second faster than Nelson’s of 1:48.21, the second-best WAC time this season.
The field will include Air Force, CSU-Bakersfield, Grand Canyon University, UNLV, North Dakota, Seattle, and the Wyoming Cowboys. The Falcons will look to defend their championship from last year, their first ever in the WAC. Follow @wyo_swimdive on twitter for updates and explore the #WACsd hashtag for more championship content.
