Swim and dive go back-to-back in the Mountain West Championships

The Aztecs secured first place in the Mountain West after a dominant championship weekend in Houston

by Justin Cox, Sports Editor • February 22, 2023

An Aztec swimmer completes a freestyle stroke during warm ups at the first swim event of the season at the Aztec Aquaplex on Sept. 9, 2022. Six months later, the Aztecs were crowned Mountain West Conference Champions.

For the second straight year and fourth in the last five, the San Diego State women’s swim and dive team captured the Mountain West title. The Aztecs dominated the competition finishing with 1,638 team points in the Mountain West Championships, breaking their own championship record of 1,541.50 team points set in 2022.

Over the course of the meet which spanned from Wednesday to Saturday, the Aztecs won 14 events as they scored over 500 more team points than the second-place University of Nevada Las Vegas who scored 1,103.

The win capped off a flawless 13-0 season as head coach Mike Shrader secured his seventh MW conference championship since the 2010-2011 season. The team is currently unbeaten in its last 42 dual meets. After the team’s first meet of the season on Sept. 9, Shrader credited both his team and the forces above for his team’s success.

“I think the good lord’s blessed our team,” Shrader said with a smile. “We’ve got a bunch of young ladies that work really hard on the diving boards and in the pool. Our senior class this year and our captains have great leadership, so it makes my job easy.”

The Aztecs were given two individual awards this past weekend as junior Wilma Johansson captured MW swimmer of the meet and freshman Moa Bergdahl won freshman of the meet. Johansson won gold in the 200 yard freestyle and the 500 yard freestyle, as well as finished second in the 200 yard butterfly.

Other standouts included junior Alex Roberts, sophomore Meredith Smithbaker and junior Christina Williams. In the 200 backstroke finals, Roberts set a Mountain West and San Diego State record finishing with a time of 1:52.86. Roberts also won gold in the 100 yard backstroke.

Williams won gold in the 100 yard breaststroke with a time of 1:00.23 and 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:08.96. Smithbaker’s 49.05 second 100 yard freestyle was also good enough for a gold medal, just four tenths of a second faster than second place. The team also won the gold medal in all relay races.

For the divers, sophomore Valentina Lopez Arevalo stole the show, shattering the previous school record with a score of 350.15.

Next up for the team is the NCAA Championships as the diving championships will be held in Federal Way, Washington from March 6-8 while the swimmers will compete in Knoxville, Tennessee from March 15-18.

About the Contributors

Justin Cox, '22-23 Sports Editor

Justin Cox (he/him) is a senior journalism major from Sonoma, California. He is excited to be a Co-Sports Editor of The Daily Aztec for the 2022-23 academic year. Previously, Cox was a sports section staff writer covering a multitude of Aztec sports including basketball, water polo, soccer and tennis. He is excited to head the sports section alongside Co-Editor Morgan Prickett with the hopes of providing fresh and engaging content for the student body. Before coming to The Daily Aztec, Cox spent time as an intern for the Sonoma Index-Tribune covering local news and was also published in the Sonoma Sun newspaper. Cox can often be found watching sports, running or going to the beach in his free time.

Isabella Biunno, '23-24 Photo Editor

Isabella Biunno (she/her/hers) is a photographer for The Daily Aztec. She is originally from Las Vegas, Nevada where she was a part of yearbook and publications for nearly six years. She is a first-year Psychology major with an emphasis in neuroscience, and she plans to go to graduate school for Occupational Therapy. She loves photography, editing, and creating, and she can’t wait to continue shooting content for the DA. One thing she is passionate about outside of photojournalism is being involved in the disability/Autism community. She is a part of SDSU’s Adapted Athletics club, and she worked as an Instructor at a company back home called Inclusion Fusion where she was able to work with people with disabilities. Although her career-related passions fall in the healthcare field, she enjoys taking pictures and covering photo events just as much. She looks forward to expanding her experience as a photographer as well as capturing some astounding shots this year.