Spartans Defend WAC Swimming & Diving Championship

Alli Davis in the 200 IM (photo courtesy of Regina Cunningham).

San Antonio, Texas — Ashlyn Acosta set a San Jose State University record in the 200 yard butterfly and the team’s overall depth prevailed as the Spartans successfully defended their Western Athletic Conference Women’s Swimming and Diving Championship.

San Jose State had 695 points in the team scoring to finish ahead of Northern Arizona’s 688 and Denver’s 631.5 in the nine-team championship. The Spartans now have back-to-back championships after not having any prior to 2012.

“When you have 25 people working together through the season with a common goal, they can do great things,” said San Jose State head coach Sage Hopkins, who was named WAC Women’s Swimming Coach of the Year for the second year in a row. “The depth and strength of our team carried us through the whole season.”

Acosta broke the school record twice on the meet’s final day with a 1:59.86 qualifying round time and a NCAA Championship provisional qualifying mark of 1:59.03 to finish second in the championship final.

The Spartans won the championship without a first place finish in any of the last 13 events on the final two days. San Jose State won the first three relay races and 2012 WAC Swimmer of the Year Marisa DeWames captured the 50 freestyle for the second year in a row during the first two days of the four-day championship meet.

Acosta and DeWames in the 100 freestyle and Amy Kilby in platform diving finished second in their events.

“They (Kilby and Jessica Holden) were humungous,” said co-captain Julia Craddock, who was third in the 200 butterfly final, about the Spartans’ diving contingent. Kilby scored points with a third in the 3-meter and fourth in the 1-meter to go along with her second in the platform. Holden’s fourth in the platform was her best finish in the WAC Championship. “They really, really helped the team and dove extremely well.”

“This is a tremendous team, a tremendous group. I’m very lucky to work with a great group of student-athletes,” Hopkins added.

Get all the results from SJSU Athletics.