Men's Swimming and Diving Places Fifth at WAC Championship

HOUSTON, Texas — The CSU Bakersfield men's swimming and diving totaled 376 points to finish in fifth place at the 2018 Western Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday.

Owen van Krimpen had one of the best performance in his career at CSUB placing third overall in the mile receiving the title of First Team All-WAC. His 45.77 second drop in the 1,650 freestyle qualified him for the NCAA 'B' cut. Van Krimpen's time (15:28.71) was not too far off of making CSUB's top five all-time list.

Following closely behind, red-shirt freshman Noah Hultner placed fourth with a fearless race, chasing the field down for First Team All-WAC in the 1,650 freestyle. Hultner swam a best time of 15:32.99, and improved from his entered time by 32.51 seconds.

Justice Kramer had a stand out performance in the 200 butterfly. Kramer's time in prelims (1:47.65) broke the CSUB school record that was previously held by Mansoor Al-Mansoor in 2005 with a time of 1:47.75. In the finals, the Roadrunner came back with a strong race and placed seventh to garner Second Team All-WAC honors. Freshman Benji Duenas had a great performance in the B final of the 200 fly going 1:51.32. That time that would have placed him eighth in tonight's A finals.

Kris Rogic, Michael Hart, Joe Cobarrubias and Loren Gillilan swam in one of the last events of the night, the 400 freestyle relay. The quartet dropped 3.68 seconds from their entered time of 3:02.42 and fought valiantly but was out touched by a fingertip for fourth place. The Roadrunners time of 2:58.74 places them as CSUB's second fastest relay of all-time.

"The men's team has a long ways to go being such a young team, but seeing the performances this weekend gives me hope that we will come back stronger then ever in the year to come. Performances like Justices, Ryan, Kris and so many more excite me, and I can't wait to work with such a great group of men" conclude CSUB's Head Coach Chris Hansen.

With WAC Championships coming to a close, `Runners Kris Rogic, Justice Kramer, Lauren Gillilian, Michael Hart, and Jake Chir will continue their season next weekend at the National Invitational Championships held in Annapolis, Maryland.

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Players Mentioned

Jake Chir: Breast/Free; 6' 0"; Junior

Joe Cobarrubias: Sprints; 5' 10"; Senior

Michael Hart: Breast/Free; 5' 10"; Sophomore

Justice Kramer: IM; 5' 11"; Junior

Owen van Krimpen: DFree; 5' 9"; Junior

Benji Duenas: Fly/Breast; 5' 11"; Freshman

Loren Gillilan: Sprints/Fly; 5' 11"; Freshman

Kris Rogic: IM/Sprint; 6' 1"; Freshman

Noah Hultner: DFree; 5' 10"; Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Jake Chir
: 6' 0"; Junior
: Breast/Free

Joe Cobarrubias
: 5' 10"; Senior
: Sprints

Michael Hart
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: Breast/Free

Justice Kramer
: 5' 11"; Junior
: IM

Owen van Krimpen
: 5' 9"; Junior
: DFree

Benji Duenas
: 5' 11"; Freshman
: Fly/Breast

Loren Gillilan
: 5' 11"; Freshman
: Sprints/Fly

Kris Rogic
: 6' 1"; Freshman
: IM/Sprint

Noah Hultner
: 5' 10"; Sophomore
: DFree