By Jessica Jimenez — Reporter
San Jose State women’s swimming and diving made a splash at the Mountain West Conference Championships held in Minneapolis, Minn. The four-day meet consisted of 10 teams competing for the top spot.
Opening day started out with two relays and the one-meter dive.
Competing in the 200-yard freestyle medley relay, seniors Antoinette Loya, Gabriela Vieira and sophomores Madelyn Sailors and Chloe Limargo clocked in at 1:41.37 earning them a seventh place finish.
Swimming in the 800 freestyle relay, seniors Gabby Heng, Erin Wayman, Katie McIntee and Kate Hanf came in seventh place touching the wall at 7:23.29.
For the one-meter diving category, senior Natasha Sondeno and sophomore Anna Jabs took part in the preliminaries earning a score of 229.05 and 200.25, respectively.
Day two of the finals, Wayman posted 5:00.36 for the 500-yard freestyle coming in 24th, the last position.
Limargo and Hanf swam the 200 IM with a 21st and 24th place finish.
Sailors swam in the 50-yard freestyle where she tied for seventh with Colorado State University sophomore Kristina Friedrichs both posting 23.18.
Closing out the day, Limargo, Loya, Heng and senior Violani Auva’a competed in the 400-yard freestyle relay and had an eighth place finish clocking in at 3:44.54.
Team standings for both day one and two totaled 146 points landing SJSU in ninth place. Regardless of the rest of the weekend, the Spartans would not be able to increase this standing.
Day three consisted of a fourth place finish for the 200-yard freestyle relay with Heng, Loya, Sailors and freshman Rebecca Petoe coming in at 1:32.32
Swimming in the 100-yard butterfly, Auva’a clocked in at 54.76 earning her an eighth place finish and just seconds behind her Loya with a 13th place finish posting 55.02.
Limargo, sophomore Cali Rowland and Petoe competed in the 100-yard breastroke and Limargo earned an eighth place finish clocking in at 1:02.39 with Rowland and Petoe earning 18th and 24th position spots, respectively.
The team ended the day with 294 points for the continous ninth place position.
On the fourth and final day of the championships, Heng won a bronze medal for 100-yard freestyle touching the wall at 49.79 nearly one second off from first place.
Limargo swam the 200-yard breastroke and came in at 2:15.51 for a 10th place finish.
She shed an impressive nine seconds since her previous meet.
Sondeno earned a score of 231.05 for a 13th place finish in the platform dive.
San Diego State University took home a second consecutive first place finish with 1,436.5 points, University of Nevada came in second place with 1,015.5 points and Wyoming came in third place with 903 points.
Several Spartans including Sailors, Vieira, Limargo, Loya, Hanf, McIntee, Wayman Heng, Auva’a and Petoe will head to the National Invitational Championships which will begin on March 12-13.
Follow Jessica on Twitter @jessicajim06
