By Taylor Lupetti (@tayclupetti ):
Day 3
Records were shattered again by the San Jose State women’s swim and dive team as junior Brenna Bushey and senior Colleen Humel led the Spartans through day three of the Mountain West Championships.
Bushey and Humel broke records in 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke, respectively.
Humel’s 52.7 split in 100 backstroke during the 400 medley relay was the second San Jose State record broken by the Chicopee, Mass. native in the championship weekend. The previous 53.04 record was set by Humel herself back in 2017 at the Pac-12 Invitational.
Swimming in the championship final was Humel’s third 100 backstroke race of the day. With a time of 53.09, she placed third in the event — a record-high for herself at the championship. She took sixth (2017) and eighth (2016) place in previous years.
Like Humel, Bushey broke her own record that was set at the 2017 Pac-12 Invitational. Improving her 100 butterfly by .19 seconds, Bushey swam a 53.21, taking second to San Diego State’s Courtney Vincent’s 52.89.
It was Bushey that gave the Spartans their most points in a single event.
Another highlight came from senior Brittany Heng who swam a career-best 50 free time of 1:50:89. She improved her previous season time by a little over three seconds and led her team in the 200 freestyle.
With 397 points at the end of the day, the Spartans ended ninth of 10 at the Mountain West Championship.
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DAY 4
The Spartans didn’t take home the gold at the end of the Mountain West Championship but a lot of athletes are leaving with accomplishments.
Colleen Humel qualified for the championship final with her 1:55.01 time in the 200 backstroke and ended up taking silver. She also swam a 1:54.93, her second personal best of the day.
Humel, along with fellow seniors Kylie Fonseca, Brittany Heng and Cari Reiswig will all have a final opportunity to break records and improve times in the postseason as they all qualified to compete.
The rest of the scoring came from three platform divers. Reiswig landed in 14th place, leading the way for 18th-place junior Eri Tamada. Fonseca closed the board out in 20th.
Although SJSU placed in 10th overall, its 571 points marks them 75.5 points higher than its 2017 Mountain West Championship score.
The Spartans are heading to Seattle next weekend for the Pac-12 Invitational on Feb. 25.
