Mendolicchio wins 200 Breast title to highlight final day of MW Championship

Saturday, February 17

San Antonio, Texas

All Day

Fresno State

Mountain West Championship

Mendolicchio wins 200 Breast title to highlight final day of MW Championship

2/17/2018 8:44:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

Complete Meet Results
Video: Mendolicchio Wins Gold

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Sophomore Manuela Mendolicchio broke the 200 Breaststroke program record twice en route to a gold medal in the event and Zofia Niemczak broke her own 200 Butterfly record to lead Fresno State on the final day of the MW Championship.

The 'Dogs also got top-eight finishes on platform from Kelli Funk and Serena Sedillo to move up to 7^th place in the final overall standings. Fresno State finished ahead of UNLV, Air Force, and San Jose State as Boise State claimed the team championship for the second consecutive season.

Swimming Highlights

Mendolicchio first broke the program 200 Breast record in the prelims, finishing first overall among 35 swimmers in 2:12.44, breaking the school record of 2:12.60 from Holly Gravatt that stood since 1998. In the final, Mendolicchio went under 2:12, touching in 2:11.21 to finish nearly a second ahead of second place. Lucy Davies finished fourth in the B final and 12^th overall in the event.
Niemczak had the top time among all swimmer in the 200 Fly prelims, breaking her own program record by more than two seconds with a time of 1:57.73. Kimberly Harbert had the sixth-best time in the prelims as she also qualified for the A final. San Diego State's Frida Berggren was able to top Niemczak in the final as the Bulldog freshman finished third while Harbert placed sixth.
Ugne Mazutaityte made the A final in the 200 Backstroke with the fourth-best time in the prelims. She topped her prelim time and finished fifth in the final while Emily Cutler and Emma Monnich both earned points in the event as they qualified for the C final.
Emily Niles led the Bulldogs in the 1650 Freestyle with a team season-best time of 16:53.46 to place 12^th. In the 100 Free, Osianna Mcreed cut nearly two seconds off her team season-best in the prelims in 50.61 and topped that with a 50.41 in the B final to place 12^th.
The meet concluded with the 400 Freestyle Relay and the Bulldog group McReed, senior Katelin Britton, Cutler, and Niemczak had a team season-best time of 3:42.07, narrowly missing the program record.

Diving Highlights

Funk and Sedillo shined on platform as both qualified for the final and were in the top six among 34 divers in the prelims.
Funk had the second best prelim score in the field, tallying 254.67, while Sedillo was sixth scoring 219.48.
In the final, Funk ended up taking fourth place while Sedillo finished seventh.

Quotable

Head Coach Jeanne Fleck

"We had a great last day. Manuela won the 200 Breast and Kelli Funk was unbelievable on 10-meter and so was Serena. Zofi was great and Kim was great and Ossi was awesome in the 100 Free. I'm just really proud of all of them. It was really a great meet."

What's Next

Funk, Sedillo, and Irina Nikolaeva will compete in the NCAA Zone diving competition March 5-7 in Flagstaff, Ariz.

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