Cal Poly Swimming and Diving hosted the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Swim Championship from Feb. 16-20 at Anderson Aquatic Center. The Men’s team finished fourth place overall in the competition, and the Women’s program placed fifth.
Freshman men’s swimmer Kieran McNulty took home two individual titles for Cal Poly over the course of the competition. McNulty recorded a 4:23.30 time in the 500 yard freestyle on Thursday, the fourth-fastest time in school history, before finishing the one mile free on Saturday with a time of 15:31.43, nine seconds ahead of the second-place swimmer.
McNulty’s two individual titles were the most by a Mustang swimmer at the MPSF Championship since 2013.
Junior men’s swimmer Gennady Sytnik broke the school record for 100 backstroke on Friday with a time of 48.03. The junior followed up his record-breaking performance by placing fifth in the 200 back on Saturday with.a time of 1:47.57, the fourth-fastest time in school history.
Senior Daniel Macavei had a fifth-place time of 48.82 in the 100 backstroke, good for fourth place in school history. Cal Poly’s 200-medley relay team finished third in the competition with a time of 1:28:51, just 0.3 seconds off of the school record set in 2018.
In diving, senior men’s diver Noah McKinley qualified for the finals on both Tuesday and Wednesday, finishing eighth in the one-meter and three-meter dive competitions.
On the women’s side, Cal Poly’s 200 free relay finished in fifth place with a time of 1:35.99. Senior Stephanie Backlund and sophomore Samantha Rankin each placed eighth in the 500 free and 200 IM, respectively.
On Saturday, Backlund finished third in the women’s one mile free with a time of 17:33.81. Sophomore Kaia Anderson finished right behind her in the competition at 17:33.90.
Hawai’i placed first in the competition on the women’s side, while BYU took home first place in the men’s competition.