By Jonathan Canas (@jonathancanas_) – Spear Reporter
SJSU swimmer backstroking. | Titus Wilkinson – The Spear
SJSU women’s swim and dive team made a big splash in the MPSF Open Water Championship finishing second in points.
The competition took place at the Marine Stadium in Long Beach, Calif. and Spartan assistant coach Steve Allnutt said it was the first ever conference championship in NCAA for open water swimming.
Fifth-year senior Reka Kovács, senior Alice Ciobanu and freshman Shyann Kissinger were the only ones representing the Spartans and took part in the 5k open water race.
Kovács lead the way for the Spartans finishing fourth out of 22 with a time of 1:01:20. She tallied 50 points in her top five finish.
Ciobanu placed sixth with a time of 1:01:46, finishing with 46 points of her own.
Kissinger finished in the top 20 at 17th place with a total time of 1:04:10, adding 24 points to the total.
SJSU finished with 120 points trailing only the University of Utah who finished with 208 points. SJSU separated itself from the pack since GCU finished in third with 93 points.
The Utes had the top three places ahead of Kovács and had five swimmers in the top 10.
“Our individual athletes shined,” said Allnutt, “Kovacs and Ciobanu absolutely dominated the day, they were players from the first stroke all the way to the 5k competition.”
SJSU will take on UC Santa Barbara Saturday at 11:00 a.m. at the SRAC pool.
