Air Force Academy
UNLV
Falcons defeat UNLV in dual meet
1/21/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Swimming and Diving
By Quinn Horner
The Falcons faced off in a double dual meet against UNLV and UC-Santa Barbara at the Buchanan Natatorium in Las Vegas on Saturday, January 21. With a solid 191-109 win over UNLV, Air Force lost to UC Santa Barbara by two points, 148-146.
"It was a great day of racing for us," said head coach Rob Clayton, "We were able to get by UNLV pretty comfortably, but ran into a great UCSB team and came up a little short."
Of the 16 events of the meet, in which the short and long distance of each stroke was raced, Air Force claimed four first place finishes. AJ Echebrecht won the three-meter diving (268.95), Zach Knoche won both the 100 and 200 breaststroke (55.33/2:01.80), and in the last relay of the meet, consisting of Steffen Mount, Lars Knutson, Michael Hannigan, and Jordan Dahle, the 200 free relay bested UNLV by one one-hundredth of a second for a final time of 1:21.44.
"Zach Knoche was brilliant winning both breaststrokes," said Clayton, "He came a long way in a week by figuring out how he needed to swim in order to win." Added Knoche, "Both of my races felt really good. Coach has been working hard with the breaststrokers this week, trying to make sure we're in the right place for the remainder of our season and into conference. Focus was on race strategy and it all came to fruition today."
Up until the 200 free relay, Air Force had not pulled out a win in any of the close finishes of the meet. "They touched us out time and time again and that was the difference today," according to Clayton. "We need to sharpen up the details by getting better at swimming into our walls and finishing our races. Good meet today and a lot of good swimming, but with conference in a month, we've got to get better and focus in on what needs to be done in order to defend our title."
To close out regular season competition, the men's diving team hosts the annual Air Force Diving Invitational at the Cadet Natatorium, Jan 27-28 at 9 am. The men's swimming team is back in action with the Sprint Championships in Denver on Jan 28.
Players Mentioned
