Men's Swimming & Diving Lead WAC Championships on Wild Day Two

HOUSTON, Texas – The Air Force Academy men's swimming and diving team concluded action on a wild day two at the 2020 WAC Championships Thursday afternoon, Feb. 27, at the CRWC Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston. Due to a water main break in the city, all of the prelim results counted as final results, while the scheduled relay and diving finals have been moved to tomorrow.

"It's been a strange day here in Houston, with the cancellation of the finals" Head Coach Rob Clayton remarked. "The guys had an incredible morning session, with at least two finalists in each event and a virtually all of our guys swam lifetime bests. It was just a great day for the Falcons and we're right where we want to be."

After a vote of the coaches, it was decided to score Thursday's preliminary races as timed finals. Friday's single session will include the 200 freestyle relays which were originally scheduled for Thursday night, as well as the men's 1-Meter finals. The men's Platform dive, which was originally scheduled for Friday, will now take place on Saturday. The WAC Digital Network plans on providing a limited broadcast of Friday's session.

The prelim sessions proved to be highly fruitful for the Falcons, as there was a new WAC Champion, and five new top-10 program times in the three events contested.

Senior Zach Nelson was AF's newest individual WAC Champion, as he took gold in the 200 IM with a time of 1:46.69. He improved on his second-best time in program history. Also in the 200 IM, sophomore Isaac Gwin placed third with a time of 1:46.74, to also set the third-best time in Academy history.

AF's next highest finisher was in the 50 free, in which the Falcons took three of the top 5 spots and four of the top-10. Sophomore Matthew Lattin placed second with a 19.86, which upped his second ranked top-10 program best time. Then senior Cole McAnany and sophomore Corey Shepard tied for fifth with a 20.03. For Shepard, he upped his program best time to sixth overall. Finally, sophomore Andrew Limpert took 10th overall.

Finally, in the 500 free, freshman Wen Zhang continued his big weekend as he placed third overall, clocking in with a 4:23.39 to set the eighth best time in AF history. Also in the top-eight of the 500 free, freshman Jaykob Williams and sophomore Adam Grimm took seventh and eighth overall.

As a team, AF has accumulated 247 points after day two to lead the competition. In second place is UNLV, and they trail by 65 points.

It was announced that the University of Houston will be closed again tomorrow, Feb. 28. The pool will be open from 9:00 a.m. CT to 3:00 p.m. CT so the schedule for Friday will be warm-ups at 9:00 a.m. and the meet will start at 10:30 a.m. CT with the 200 free relay. The met will then continue with Friday's scheduled individual events (400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back) as timed finals and then finish with the 400 medley relay. The WAC will also be running the men's 1-meter finals concurrently during this time.

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