Air Force Academy

Feb. 26, 2011

Results

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. - Four Air Force swimming records fell, highlighting final day action at the 2011 Mountain West Conference Swimming & Diving Championships at the OCCC Aquatic Center. The Falcon men's team finished in sixth place with 413.5 points and the women's team took ninth with 141 points.

UNLV won the men's title with 770.50 points, while San Diego State won on the women's side with 646 points.

Air Force senior Benjamin Gunn capped off a stellar four-year career by winning the 200 yard butterfly event for his third career MWC title. In addition, Gunn broke the school record in the 200 backstroke, where he finished second. Gunn won the 200 fly with a time of 1:46.21 and his 200 IM time of 1:45.60 surpassed Paul Brehm's previous record of 1:46.27 set in 2003. Both of Gunn's swims earned NCAA B-cut standards.

The Falcon men's team had eight swims crack the school's top 10 record book in addition to four NCAA B-cut swims.

In addition to Gunn's two swims, the Falcons reached NCAA B-standards in the 1650 free and 400 free relay. Junior Corydon Butler finished fifth in the 1650 with a time of 15:33.87. His 1000 yard split of 9:23.92 is the fifth-fastest 1000 time in school history. In the 400 free relay, the group of Micah Newmann, Paul Leonhardt, Tim Martinelli and Butler combined to swim a time of 2:59.06.

Two more Falcons cracked the AFA record books in the 200 back, as Matt Millikin placed 10th overall with a time of 1:47.93, which is sixth all-time at AFA. Angus MacDonald followed in 14th with a time of 1:48.36, which is eighth-fastest.

In the 200 breast, Cody Deacon won the consolation final and finished ninth overall with a time of 2:00.90, which is the second-fasted in school history. In the 200 fly, Air Force also had a solid swim from Leonhardt, who finished fourth with a time of 1:48.97, which is seventh-fastest at AFA.

Freshmen Alex Pecci and Peter Cialkowski finished 10th and 11th in the platform diving. Pecci scored 214.30 points in the finals and Cialkowski 207.75.

On the women's side school records were broken in the 200 back, 200 fly and the 400 free relay events. In addition, the Falcons had nine swims that cracked the school top 10 lists.

Freshman Erin Bleyl broke the school record in the 200 back, twice. Her prelim swim of 2:02.57 surpassed the previous mark of 2:02.92, set by Amy Hennies 15 years ago in 1996. Bleyl then swam a time of 2:01.66 in the finals. Freshman Liz Harrison also swam well for the Falcons in the 200 back with a time of 2:08.75, which is the ninth-fastest time at AFA.

Sophomore Haley Holcombe set a new school record in the 200 fly, finishing seventh overall. Her time of 2:02.36 surpassed her own school record of 2:02.85. Freshman Gabby Aranda also swam the fourth-fastest 200 fly time at the Academy with a time of 2:04.04.

Three Falcons entered the record books in the 100 free. Cassie Fletcher swam the seventh-fastest time (52.31), Hannah Cesare the eighth-fastest (52.41) and Alivia Berg the 10th-fastest time (52.63) in school history.

In the 200 breaststroke, sophomore Katrina Castellanos swam the third-fastest time in school history with a time of 2:20.49.

The group of Bleyl, Cesare, Berg and Fletcher broke the school record in the 400 free relay with a time of 3:27.16, surpassing the previous mark of 3:27.30 set in 2009.

Air Force set six school records (five women's, one men's), had 33 top 10 swims (18 women's, 15 men's) and had eight men's NCAA B-cut swims overall at the MWC Championships.