West Virginia all but secured its final team placements on Friday after making minimal noise on day four of the Big 12 Swimming & Diving Championships.
Nine event finals took place Friday evening, and Texas won all but one of them, taken down only by BYU senior Brad Prolo in the men’s 200 butterfly. The Longhorns broke five Aquatics Center records and three Big 12 Championship records on Friday.
Fifth-year Kelly Pash is three-for-three in winning and breaking pool records in final rounds. Friday, Pash broke the championship record in 1:51.66 in the 200 butterfly. Pash also pulled the rear for the women’s 200 freestyle relay team that broke the Big 12 Championship record in 1:26.66.
Lydia Jacoby, the 2021 Olympic gold medalist in the 100 breaststroke, set a Big 12 Championship record in her best event, coming in at 57.27 seconds, just .24 seconds short of a personal best in a collegiate pool.
Of the three events Texas failed to take home the gold this week, BYU men’s swimmers placed first in two, with the other being the men’s 400 IM won by WVU senior Danny Berlitz on Thursday. Despite this, BYU and WVU remain stagnant at third and fifth respectively in the five-team men’s standings.
For West Virginia, the low placement is due primarily to a lack of finalists on each day. Friday, the Mountaineers had just three individual swimmers and one individual diver compete in the final rounds.
The finalists mostly capitalized on their opportunities Friday night, though. Senior Justin Heimes led WVU with a fourth-place finish in the men’s 100-yard backstroke finals with a time of 47.03 seconds, short .18 seconds of his personal best.
Senior Joe Schaefer joined Heimes as a men’s finalist, placing sixth in the 100 breaststroke in 54.2 seconds, .49 seconds off his personal best. For the women’s team, sophomore Mia Cheatwood completed the 100 breaststroke in 1:00.6 to place fifth.
Until Friday’s last individual event, Cheatwood remained the only member of the women’s team to make a championship final in the week. Joining her Friday was senior diver Sara Haggerty in the women’s platform. Haggerty finished eighth with 247.4 points.
Wrapping up solid individual performances for the Mountaineers on day four was Lilly Culp, who won the consolation finals of the women’s 200 butterfly. Her 1:59.7 time was a personal best and would have put her in sixth among finalists.
WVU found itself in the middle of the pack for Friday’s two team events, the men’s and women’s 200 freestyle relay. The women’s team of Cheatwood, senior Kate Beckish, and sophomores Gabriela Martin De La Torre and Ada Szwabinska completed the event in 1:31.6 to place fifth of eight. The men’s team of seniors Berlitz and Roanoke Shirk and juniors Braden Osborn and Conner McBeth placed third of five teams in 1:18.47.
The Big 12 Championships come to a close Saturday with finals in 12 events, including the 200 breaststroke in which Cheatwood set a program record during Tuesday’s time trials.
Saturday preliminary rounds kick off at 9:15 a.m. EST with women’s 3m diving. The same event starts the day’s final rounds at 5:15 p.m. in Mylan Park’s Aquatics Center.
Photo from WVU Swimming & Diving
