Men's Swimming & Diving Wins 2020 WAC Championships

HOUSTON, Texas – The Air Force Academy men's swimming and diving team clinched their third Western Athletic Conference title in the last five years Saturday afternoon, Feb. 29, at the CRWC Natatorium on the campus of the University of Houston. The Falcons finished with a new modern WAC record 864 points and finished 172 points ahead of the second place team.

"It was a phenomenal WAC Championships, winning more events this past weekend then we have in the past decade," Head Coach Rob Clayton exclaimed. "At the Air Force Academy we talk about resiliency, and we talk about flexibility, and it was a weekend where there were a lot of things thrown our way, but the guys showed up and were just undeterred when the situation changed and they adapted and dominated the meet."

On the final day there were seven more events contested, and AF continued to assert its dominance, winning three more. Overall on the weekend, the Falcons won 12 of the 21 events. Air Force also set nine school records, while also putting 30 new times in the all-time Academy top-10.

The final day of the championships started with the 1650 freestyle, where freshman Jaykob Williams led the pack from start to finish, taking gold with a 15:10.86, finishing ahead of the second place swimmer by almost 10 seconds. His time was good for the fourth-fastest in program history. In fifth, sophomore Adam Grimm clocked in with a 15:25.78, which was the ninth-quickest for the Falcons all-time.

In the 200 back, senior Cole McAnany placed fourth with a new school record time of 1:43.71, while sophomore Isaac Gwin took sixth with a 1:44.92, which was the second-fastest program time.

Then in the 100 free, AF took three spots in the top 10, with sophomore Matthew Lattin taking silver with a 43.43, the third-fastest time in Academy history. Freshman Wen Zhang took fourth (43.82) and sophomore Corey Shepard seventh (44.18). Zhang's time was seventh-fastest and Shepard's ninth. Also setting top-10 times in the 100 free were sophomore Wyatt Boswell, who swam a 44.17 in an exhibition, and sophomore Andrew Limpert with a 44.18 in a time trial.

Moving on to the 200 breast, senior Zach Nelson took his third gold medal of the weekend after blowing away the competition with a new school record time of 1:54.83. Right behind him in second place was freshman Tory Bartlett who clocked in with a 1:57.19 to set the fifth-fastest time in AF history.

The final individual school record that was broken came in the 200 fly, as Limpert swam to a second place finish with a time of 1:44.47. Also in the top-10 were sophomore Aaron Pang, who took fifth, and sophomore Logan Davis, who placed seventh. Davis' time of 1:48.24 was the tenth-fastest in program history.

In the final swimming event of the Championships, the 400 free relay, the Falcons but a bow on the dominating weekend, as the squad of Lattin, Gwin, Zhang, and Shepard, placed first with a new school record time of 2:53.83.

Finally, in the diving well, the platform dive was contested on the final day. Junior Cole Armagost continued his solid weekend with a second place finish. In the prelim round, Armagost was the highest point scorer with a 321.30.

Air Force will now wait and see if anyone has qualified for the 2020 NCAA Championships, which will take place March 25-28 in Indianapolis, Ind.

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