After dominating swimming at the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference, the UCSD women’s and men’s swimming and diving teams capped off their respective seasons with fourth-place and 13th-place finishes at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in Orlando, Fla.
At the conference championships in Long Beach, which featured many Division I teams, the UCSD women’s team captured its first conference title since 1998 after finishing second the last two years.
Jennifer Watanabe and Sandra Lopez led the Tritons with two first-place finishes — Lopez winning the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events while Watanabe took the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke titles.
The men’s team also improved from its fifth-place finish last year, grabbing fourth behind the strong swimming of distance specialist Devin Spicer and All-American Luke Seed.
Spicer grabbed second in the 1650-yard freestyle, fifth in the 200-yard butterfly and eighth in the 500-yard freestyle event. Seed took third in the 100-yard breaststroke and also placed fifth in the 200-yard individual medley.
Junior Tad Nakatani also turned in a high individual performance, coming in second in the 200-yard breaststroke.
“”I was really happy with how the women did and the men did,”” said head coach Scott McGihon. “”We swam really well and had a lot of people step up and have lifetime bests, which is what we shoot for.””
The Tritons attempted to carry the momentum into the four-day NCAA championships, but according to McGihon, their dominance at conference actually ended up hurting them.
“”I don’t think anybody was quite ready for the speed of the meet — it was the fastest meet by far they’ve had at the Division II level,”” he said. “”We weren’t ready, especially after not being particularly challenged at our conference meet.””
The women’s team qualified 18 members for finals. The team’s depth, along with the strong swimming of its relay teams, helped to propel UCSD to fourth place. This finish was impressive, considering the Tritons’ slow start, albeit 383 points behind champion Truman State University.
“”On the women’s side, we probably should have finished higher.”” McGihon said. “”We had a rough first day and had to dig ourselves out of a hole.””
On the first day, the Tritons showed their depth when three UCSD swimmers earned points in the 200-yard individual medley. Watanabe led the team, finishing at 2:05.89 for fourth place while Christine Hyjek and Denise Bogard grabbed 13th and 15th place, respectively. However, UCSD found itself in seventh place and 145 points behind Truman State.
The three struck again the next day in the 400-yard IM. Watanabe came in fourth place, and Hyjek and Bogard earned respective 11th and 16th positions. Samantha Wong, Lopez and Carly Ross also earned points for UCSD, respectively placing 13th, 15th and 16th in the 200-yard freestyle event. The Triton 200-yard freestyle and the 400-yard medley relay teams each grabbed third place and moved UCSD up to sixth at the midway point of the championships.
Days three and four saw Watanabe lead again when she placed second in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events, as well as anchoring the 400- and 800-yard freestyle relay teams, which earned sixth and fourth place, respectively.
The Tritons’ other strength was demonstrated in the 100-yard breaststroke competition, in which Denise Bogard, Michaela Osborn, Rosanna Delurgio, Lopez, Meeks and Katie Miller earned the second, third, sixth, sixth, seventh and 16th spots to earn a total of 73 points in the event. Lopez, Bogard and Delurgio teamed up in the 200-yard breaststroke to grab the third, fourth and fifth spots as well.
Watanabe, while unable to add to her eight national titles, was crucial for UCSD, accounting for (including relay teams) 118 of UCSD’s 350 points.
“”[The women’s team] finished strong by scrambling out of the hole they built for themselves — that took a huge commitment from them,”” McGihon said. “”We just need to have the first two days be as good as the last two days.””
On the men’s side of the pool, junior Luke Seed and freshman Devin Spicer paced UCSD.
Spicer, the Tritons’ distance specialist, scored points in the 1000-yard freestyle, the 500-yard freestyle and the 1650-yard freestyle events.
Seed, a returning All-American in four events, accounted for 30 of UCSD’s total of 105. He placed sixth in the 200-yard IM, 14th in the 100-yard butterfly and fifth in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Like the women, the men’s team also benefited from strong swimming from its relay teams.
The Tritons scored points in five different relay events, grabbing 15th in the 200-yard medley, 11th in the 200-yard freestyle, 15th in the 400-yard medley relay and eighth in the 800-yard freestyle.
“”I was really happy with the men’s results — it’s probably a pretty fair representation of where we should be,”” McGihon said.
McGihon was pleased with his teams’ chemistry and attitude, but has higher expectations for next year’s teams.
“”Overall, we definitely accomplished our goals for the season. Now that we’ve achieved those goals, we need to make new goals as to where we should be,”” he said. “”We just need to bring our performance level up. My personal goal for the women as a team is top two, for the men is top 10.””