It was a disappointing weekend for Triton aquatics when the UCSD men’s swimming and diving team lost both of its road meets last weekend while the women managed only a split.
The teams opened with a relay-only meet at University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif. It was the first home dual meet of the season for the Tigers.
UOP dominated both sides of the competition, taking nine of 10 events from UCSD’s men and capturing eight of the first nine events on the women’s side. The Triton men lost by a final of 198-148 while UCSD’s women lost 220-160.
Despite the dominance of the first-place finishes in individual events, the men’s meet was very close until UOP sealed the win with victories in the final three events, which were the 1,500-meter free relay, the 400-meter medley relay and the 40-meter free relay.
The only event that the Triton men managed to win was the 300-meter breaststroke relay. Robert Small, Tad Nakatani and Luke Seed all combined for a winning time of 3:00.96, finishing more than 16 seconds ahead of the second-place Tiger team of Tauny Drusys, Steve Chiaro and Joel Fatherree.
UCSD’s women’s team also won the 300-meter breaststroke relay. The team of Lindsey Meeks, Katie Miller and Sandra Lopez edged out the competition for the win.
The Triton team of Heather Hearon, Elaine Engel, Miller and Jennifer Wilson was also victorious in the 400-meter freestyle relay — the only other competition that the UCSD women won.
The second meet of the weekend was just as disappointing as the first for the Triton men. UCSD lost to host UC Davis 179.5-108.5. The women’s team fared better, defeating the Aggie women by a final of 197-103.
Individually, Seed was one of the lone bright spots for the men, winning both the 100-meter breaststroke and the 200-meter breaststroke to pace UCSD.
Jennifer Watanabe won the women’s 200-meter free and the 500-meter free, Frances Tran won the 100-meter fly and 200-meter fly, and Lopez won the 100-meter breaststroke and 200-meter breaststroke.
The Tritons will next be in action Saturday at 1 p.m., when they take to the pool at Cal State Bakersfield.
