The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) will hold its inaugural Collegiate 5 km and 2 km relay Open Water Championship in Long Beach’s Marine Stadium on October 21st.
The NCAA Division I sanctioned event will also have an opportunity for masters swimmers and alumni of MPSF institutions to compete in separate 5 km races.
The participating universities include MPSF Charter and Member Schools, and many of the Top NCAA Division I universities in the western United States.
The Championship will consist of five events:
- College mens’s 5K @ 9 am
- College women’s 5K @ 10:30 am
- Masters/Open 5K @ 12:00 pm
- College men’s 2K Relay @ 1:45 pm
- College women’s 2K Relay @2:15 pm
The Top 3 Finishers in the men’s and women’s 5K events will qualify for the Collegiate 5K National Championships and the USA National Championship. In addition to the primary Collegiate events, there will be Alumni Team Awards.
Race visionary and event director Kaia Hedlund explains the reason for this event, “The MPSF Championships in Open Water Swimming could potentially lead to NCAA Emerging Sport status and, ultimately, a separate NCAA Championship. Alumni from institutions invited to the MPSF Championship have participated in every one of the Olympic 10K Marathon Swims and have medaled in both the men’s and women’s events.”
Marine Stadium was built for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics rowing competition and used for the 1968 USA Olympic rowing trials, the 2010 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships, the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, and several triathlons in the 1980’s.
The MPSF member institutions include:
- Stanford University
- Air Force Academy
- UCLA
- University of Southern California
- University of California San Diego
- University of California, Berkeley
- University of California Davis
- University of California Santa Barbara
- University of California Riverside
- University of California Irvine
- California State University Fullerton
- California State University Northridge
- California State University Long Beach State
- California State University Bakersfield
- California State University San Jose
- University of Hawaii
- Arizona State University
- Indiana University
- Portland
- Oklahoma
- University of San Francisco
- California Polytechnic University
- Hawaii Pacific University
- Pepperdine University
- Brigham Young University
- Alaska-Anchorage
- Sacramento State
- Southern Utah University
- Texas Woman’s University
- University of the Incarnate Word
- Wheaton College
- Concordia University
- Grand Canyon University
- Augustana Austin College
- Penn State Behrend
- Washington & Jefferson
For more information, visit here.
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