Huston and Yoo Earn Gold to Close Big West Championships

Saturday, February 15

Houston, TX

10:00 AM

Big West Championships

Photo by: Big West Conference

Huston and Yoo Earn Gold to Close Big West Championships

2/15/2025 10:00:00 PM | Swimming and Diving

HOUSTON, Texas — Cal Poly's Drew Huston and Evan Yoo both set new program records while becoming champions in the 200 Back and 200 Breast respectively as the women's team finished the tournament 6th (268 points) and the men in 3rd (603 points).

Olivia Sundgren (16:54.44), swimming the 3rd fastest 1650 Free in program history, began the finals with a podium spot in third place. Courtney Cross (17:32.58) finished 10th with a solid time as well. On the men's side, Cole Groom (16:17.76) placed 12th.

Drew Huston's (1:40.39) championship win in the 200 Back was not only a new program and conference record, but also currently places him 24th in the nation. Sam Seybold's (1:45.98) A-Final 5th place was not far behind as the true freshman finished his fantastic debut campaign.

Lucas Meneghetti (1:46.55), finishing 9th in the B-Final, also placed himself in Cal Poly's top-5 200 Back times as the fifth-best. Scott Iannaccone rounded out the B-Final for Cal Poly in 10th (1:49.16).

The women's 200 Back featured a pair of B-Final placements in 15th for Kristin Der (2:03.20) and 16th for Kayla Wieckowski (2:05.80 - prelims).

Summer Cheng placed 14th (51.63) in the 100 Free B-Final before Lucas Crother-Collado placed 12th for the men (44.07 - prelims) while attaining Cal Poly's 4th-fastest time in program history. Jonathan Butler (44.29 prelims) and Nick Elliott (44.60 prelims) made B-Finals alongside Crother-Collado.

Sweeping the breaststroke championships was Evan Yoo (1:53.64) with a new program record, NCAA B-Cut time, and fourth consecutive meet of winning those respective events. Joining him on the 200 Breast podium in 3rd was Alex Seybold (1:55.62) resetting his 2nd fastest program time on top of garnering an NCAA B-Cut. Rhian Nietzel also managed the 4th-fastest women's 200 Breast time in program history with her 10th place finish (2:17.10).

Amalie Claus-Udarbe (12th, 2:17.80) for the women's 200 Breast, and Camilo Vargas (12th 2:01.25), Krishna Clarke (13th, 2:00.74 prelims), Alex Power (14th, 2:02.20 prelims), and Luke Reyes (15th, 2:03.45) all earned points in the event as well.

Finishing the individual swimming events, Finn Schlamp highlighted with his 200 Fly time (1:45.34) just missing out on a podium finish while moving up to 2nd-best in program history and solidifying an NCAA B-Cut time. Anthony Moskalenko (13th, 1:49.08) also placed for the men, followed by Kayla Wieckowski (15th, 2:06.08 prelims) and Taylor Lyon (16th, 2:09.59) in the women's Fly.

Cal Poly's women's 400 Free Relay team of Ella Bettencourt, Mikaela Gomez, Courtney Cross, and Summer Cheng (3:25.47) finished 6th and also set a new program record, meanwhile Drew Huston, Jonathan Butler, Nick Elliott, and Lucas Crother-Collado (2:55.83) narrowly missed a podium in 4th place.

Lucas Lehrer finished the diving season on a high with the program's 3rd-best Platform score (246.80), while Abigail Leight (9th, 183.80), Ava Lazovsky (12th, 168.75), and Shayna Gayer (14th, 167.35) placed highest for the women.

The Mustangs must now wait for the other conference tournaments and last chance meets around the country to finish before knowing whether their record times and cuts will prove fruitful.