Women's Swim & Dive February 25, 2014 CSU Bakersfield Athletic Communications

Roadrunners Enter WAC Swimming Championships

BAKERSFIELD, Calif.--The Bakersfield men's and women's swimming and diving teams enter the WAC Championships this week. The championships runs from Feb. 26 - Mar. 1. The meet will be held at Palo Alto College Aquatic Center in San Antonio, Texas.

The championship begins Wednesday afternoon at 12:00 p.m. CT with men's 3-meter diving prelims followed by the women's 1-meter diving prelims. The first finals events will begin in the evening session on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. CT, with the 200 medley relay, finals for diving and the 800 freestyle relay.

The WAC will be streaming the finals of all four nights. Viewers can sign up by visiting www.WACSports.tv. Each night can be viewed for a subscription of $6.95 per night or a full championship package can be purchased for $10.95.

"This women's championship will be very close," said Bakersfield director of swimming and diving Chris Hansen. "In my opinion, it will be fight between Northern Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico State, Grand Canyon and CSUB, not ruling out Northern Colorado. For us to be in the top three of the eight teams, our divers Carlee Burks, Melissa Gore and Sarah Barker will play a huge part. These three ladies all need to score in all three diving events. On top of the diving events, our free relays need to swim to win."

"Our 800 and 400 free relays are going in to the meet as the top seed," Hansen continued. "We are a very young team and the individual events are also going to be crucial. Delise Batiza, Paola Hernandez, Michaela Paige and Kelsey Lange are all seeded in the top eight in their events. These ladies needed to score big. The stroke events need Nicolette Goncalves, Lucy Sanderson and Jeanette Dove to swim their best and newcomers Sara Christiansen and Dylan Milobar will need to step up their game in the breast events. If we come together like we did against our meet with Fresno State, this championship will be a game changer for the CSUB women's swimming and diving team. I expect the women will see many schools records again this year! We have the potential to break every relay record and many individual records. This team has put the work in, they deserve a great championship!!"

"The men's championship is jam packed with top NCAA teams," Hansen said. "UNLV and Wyoming will be the teams to beat. It's no surprise the men had a rough year. However, I predict we shock some teams. Mitchell Huxhold, Alex Kotliarsky and Gabriel Bertrand will lead the team with their swims and goals of making the NCAA championship. Tomas Bruce will join these three men as a member of the 800 Free relay. Our goal is to crush the school record and get as close to an NCAA cut as we can get. Upperclassmen, Carson May and Jordan Singleton are expected to challenge school records in their events and Fran Cverle and Brett Emery will play a huge part in relays."