UCSD swimming and diving faced Cal State Bakersfield on Nov. 16. UCSD’s women won 189-111 while its men lost 188-98.
The women dominated the meet, sweeping the first three places in six out of 14 events.
One of the most impressive events of the day was the 400-yard individual medley. Sophomore Christine Hyjek won in a time of 4:36.04, and was followed by sophomore Kim Rice with a time of 4:40.91 and junior Denise Bogard with a time of 4:42.40. All three swimmers earned National Collegiate Athletic Association B-cut qualifications.
Rice had a strong day, winning both the 100- and 200-yard backstroke. Her time in the 200 was a 2:10.25, an NCAA B-cut qualification and a lifetime best by over two seconds. Bogard was also a significant contributor for the Tritons, coming in second in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:06.36, an NCAA automatic qualification.
Sophomore Rosanna Delurgio had some of the strongest swims of the day, winning the 100-yard breaststroke (1:05.78) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:23.38) and automatically qualifying for NCAA in both events.
Other NCAA qualifying swims included sophomore Francis Tran’s first place in the 200-yard butterfly in a time of 2:11.33, freshman Sophie Levy’s first place in the 1,000-yard freestyle in a time of 10:43.45, and her first place in the 500 freestyle in a time of 5:13.99.
The diving squad gave a solid performance as well. Jenny Margrave led the Triton female divers, coming in third in the 1-meter diving and second in the 3-meter diving.
Although CSUB did not bring any male divers to the meet, UCSD divers Jason Boehm and Peter Nichols competed against each other, earning significant points for the UCSD men. Boehm won both the 1-meter diving and the 3-meter diving.
The UCSD men’s squad put up its best effort against the CSUB men, who are three-time defending champions in NCAA Division II. Despite their loss, the Tritons had a successful day, with several swimmers earning NCAA qualification times.
In the 1,000-yard freestyle, UCSD senior Dagart Allison’s second-place time of 9:56.19 was a B-cut qualification, which will allow him to swim in the NCAA meet if he earns an automatic qualification in another event.
Triton sophomore Michael Baier finished second in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:43.92, another NCAA B-cut qualification. He got a second B-cut qualification in the 400-yard individual medley, winning in a time of 4:10.24.
Other notable swims included sophomore Steve Nishiyama’s second place in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:01.91 and junior Jesse Ford’s second place in the 200-yard breaststroke in 2:13.96, finishing just behind CSUB’s Carl Crawford (2:12.12). UCSD freshman Amadeus Regucera came in third in the 400-yard individual medley with a personal best of 4:15.13.
Sophomore Brady Gosling came in fourth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:45.43, which was an “”outstanding time for him,”” according to Triton head coach Scott McGihon.
Getting so many NCAA qualifications this early in the season is remarkable and heralds a successful year for UCSD swimming and diving.
“”I think the team did an extraordinary job cheering-wise and in performance,”” UCSD women’s co-captain Carolyn Kwok said of both the men’s and the women’s teams. “”They’ve been training really hard and it’s been very inspiring seeing them all step up to the challenges put forth through this meet despite being broken down and fatigued.””
After several months of hard training, the UCSD swimmers will ease up for several weeks to prepare for the Speedo Cup from Dec. 5 through Dec. 7.
“”We are going to rest for that meet and see how many NCAA standards we can get,”” McGihon said.
Since most of the teams at the Speedo Cup will be Division I squads such as UC Berkeley, Stanford and UCLA, the team’s focus will be getting individual bests and qualifying times for NCAA.
The UCSD men’s and women’s diving teams will next compete at the UCLA Diving Invitational from Jan. 17 through Jan. 18.
