Luca Mazzurana, Lazar Bogdanovski and Douglas Cohen won gold medals in the Hawaii men’s swimming and diving championships in Houston yesterday.

Their efforts helped make the whole team a winner.

The Rainbow Warriors scored 1,018.50 points to beat Southern Methodist (860.50) for their first conference title. East Carolina finished third and North Dakota was last.

Mazzurana won the 200 fly for Hawaii with a time of 1:44.28, a meet and UH record.

Bogdanovski won the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:45.91 and Cohen won the platform dive with 325.6 points. Hawaii swept the top four spots in that event, with Freddie Menzel (278.70) finishing second, followed by Thomas Rugg (266.15) in third and Luke Hayes (240.95) in fourth.

FRIESEN, BROWN TOPS IN WAC

Hawaii’s Emma Friesen was named the WAC diver of the year at the conference championship meet yesterday, while UH coach Mike Brown was honored as best diving coach.

Friesen also won the award in 2009 as Hawaii has had the diver of the year in nine of the last 10 seasons. Brown has been the diving coach of the year in each of the last six seasons and seven times in his career. Friesen won two events during the meet, but couldn’t get Hawaii past Boise State for the WAC title.

The Broncos finished the meet with 835 points. Hawaii finished second with 577. Northern Arizona (535) was third, followed by San Jose State (499), New Mexico State (405), Nevada (326), Fresno State (276) and Idaho (213).

Taylor Ritenberg earned a gold medal for Hawaii yesterday, winning the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:11.27 for her second gold medal of the meet. Stephanie De Lima was the best platform diver for the second straight year, scoring 234.60 points to beat Nevada’s Grace Huang (219.60).

Hawaii’s Maura Barrett finished third in the 100 freestyle with a time of 49.96, while Melissa Myers took fifth in the 1,650 free with a time of 17:02.90.

The Rainbow Wahine took second in the 400 freestyle relay. Christa Prior, Barrett, Annathea Accornero and Ritenberg posted a time of 3:21.02.

HAWAII FINISHES SEVENTH IN WAC

Hawaii junior Madara Apine fell 2 inches short of winning the triple jump at the Western Athletic Conference indoor championships yesterday as the Rainbow Wahine finished the meet in seventh place.

Apine went 39 feet, 11.25 inches to finish second in the event and stretch Hawaii’s streak of silver medals in the event to four straight years. Louisiana Tech senior Quatisha Williams (40-1.25) won gold and Hawaii’s Candace Alvarez finished eighth.

Louisiana Tech (133 points) won the team event by one point over Utah State (132) for its sixth straight WAC title. Nevada (88) was third, followed by Boise State (80), New Mexico State (67.5), Fresno State (67), Hawaii (48.5) and host Idaho (44).

Senior Ashley Aitken earned Hawaii’s other medal yesterday, taking bronze in the 800 meters. She ran a personal-best time of 2:12.97 to follow Liga Velvere (2:10.70) of Idaho and Kylie Hirschi (2:12.70) of Utah State. Aitken also earned a personal-best time of 9:57.08 in the 3,000 meters to place fifth.