Women take 1st place, men take 2nd place at MPSF Open Water

LONG BEACH, California. – The Grand Canyon swimming team had a strong day at the second-ever MPSF Open Water Championships, where the Lopes women’s team placed first out of 11 and the men took second out of seven.

On the GCU men’s side, freshman Batu Servi came third in the 5th-kilometer race with a time of 59 minutes and 34.00 seconds.

Behind Servi, sophomore Colin Campbell took seventh place in the 20-man field with a time of 1 hour 3:52.00 minutes. Furthermore, in the second year Joe Stephenson (Ninth), freshman Easton Mousser (13th) and Senior (15th) all finished in the top 15.

In the men’s 2,000-meter relay, Servi, Mousser, Campbell and Stephenson took first place with a time of 24:06.00.

In the women’s 5K run, the Lopes were led by the second-grader Vivi Criscione who took third place out of 45 athletes with a time of 1:05:42.00.


senior Aleksandra Wegrzynowska clocked a time of 1:07:39.00, securing sixth place.


Second semester Summer Dean (10th) and senior Maria Chatzi (22nd) also landed in the top 25.


In the women’s 2,000-meter relay, Lopes’ squad of Chatzi, Criscione, Dean and Wegrzynowska placed second in 25:30.00, securing first place overall for GCU with 121 team points.


In addition, Lopes is the head coach Steve Schaffer took part in the 1,000 meter masters run.


All results of the event can be found here.


The Lopes will next travel to Hawaii on October 25-26.