UCSD men’s and women’s swimming teams competed at the Speedo Cup at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif., from Nov. 20 to Nov. 22. The women’s team finished second while the men’s team placed fourth.
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The Speedo Cup is the biggest and most important meet of the fall season. High-powered Division I, Division II and Division III teams from 23 NCAA schools attended.
Oregon State won the women’s meet with 1069 points, followed by UCSD with 930.5 points and UC Irvine with 776.5 points. On the men’s side, Stanford triumphed with 1885 points, trailed by Brigham Young with 1012 points and Cal State Bakersfield with 950.5 points. UCSD earned 567.5 points for fourth.
Setting four team records was the highlight of the meet for the UCSD women. Senior co-captain Carolyn Kwok, junior Rosanna Delurgio and freshmen Emily Harlan and Liz Whiteley swam a UCSD all-time best of 1 minute and 34.34 seconds in the 200-yard freestyle relay, which they won. The 200-yard medley relay, comprised of freshman Susan Bell, sophomore Sarah Grant, Delurgio, and Harlan, set a team record with a time of 1:45.65.
Guardian file
Harlan also obtained two individual records, in the 50-yard freestyle (23.50) and the 100-yard freestyle (51.60). She placed third in both events.
Delurgio had an outstanding day, earning second place in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:02.18) and the 200-yard breaststroke (2:17.53), and finishing fifth in the 50-yard freestyle (23.91). Senior Denise Bogard placed third in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:04.17.
Sophomore Sophie Levy performed well in the long-distance events. She placed third in the 200-yard freestyle (1:54.25) and fourth in both the 500-yard freestyle (5:01.48) and the 1650-yard freestyle (17:21.76).
The women captured second place on the first day of the meet and maintained their position throughout the remaining two sessions.
“”Each session we just seemed to get stronger,”” junior co-captain Christine Hyjek said of the Tritons.
This was especially true for the men. After the first day of races, the men were in sixth place. They had only one exceptional showing that day; their 200-yard freestyle relay team comprised of junior Mark Tate, freshman Andy Harutunian, sophomore Mike Isaacs and senior Rob Small came in third and automatically qualified for the NCAA championships with a time of 1:23.67.
As the meet wore on, the men began to earn more points, surpassing UC Irvine and Pacific. Harutunian, junior Brady Gosling, Tate, and freshman Tim Fuller earned another third place finish for the team with their 400-yard freestyle relay (3:05.96).
The men made up ground in the breaststroke events. In the 100-yard breaststroke, junior Brett Going earned fourth place (56.55), Small finished in fifth place (56.79) and freshman Jacob Dong placed eighth (57.67). The same trio placed well in the 200-yard breaststroke. Dong came in sixth place (2:05.96), Going placed ninth (2:04.45) and Small came in 11th place (2:06.09). Although Going’s final time beat those of several swimmers who placed higher than he did, his time from preliminaries restricted him to ninth place or lower.
Other notable individual swims included freshman Mike Lahey’s 11th-place 200-yard backstroke (1:51.46) and freshman Paul Wikholm’s 11th-place 200-yard butterfly (1:54.23).
At the Speedo Cup, the excitement of swimming against such a large number of Division I teams led to higher energy levels and faster-than-normal swims for the UCSD athletes. It also had a rousing effect on team spirit.
“”Our team had by far the most spirit out of any team there,”” Hyjek said. “”I have never been prouder to be a member of this team. We took an individual sport and made it a team sport.””
Her co-captain Kwok expressed similar sentiments.
“”Just seeing our team come together so well, constantly supporting and encouraging each other throughout each day, and seeing my teammates reach their goals made the meet a memorable one,”” Kwok said.
Both women said that they could not have swum as well as they did without the support of their teammates.
The captains and UCSD swimming head coach Scott McGihon felt that the meet was successful in part because the team accomplished one of its principal goals: to earn as many NCAA qualifications as possible. Last year the team sent six men and 14 women to the national championships. This year, 10 men and 14 women have already automatically qualified, and the Pacific Conference Championships, another good opportunity to qualify, is still to come.
The recently-issued rankings for the NCAA Division II swimming championships indicate that UCSD should place well at the meet. All of the women’s relays will be ranked first in the division, while the men’s relays will all place among the top three.
Eight UCSD women expect to place fifth or better in at least one individual event. Delurgio is ranked first in both breaststroke events. In the 100-yard breaststroke, Bogard is right behind her in second place. Harlan has the top position in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard freestyle, as does Hyjek in the 400-yard individual medley.
As it stands now, Levy ranks in the top two in the 500-yard freestyle, the 1,000-yard freestyle and the 1,650-yard freestyle. Freshman Andrea Lippin holds fourth place in the 1,650-yard freestyle. Junior Frances Tran and Bell are tentatively ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 200-yard backstroke.
Five UCSD men hold places higher than fifth in an individual event. Going has the fastest Division II times in the 100-yard breaststroke and the 200-yard breaststroke. Surprisingly, a different UCSD swimmer claims second place behind Going in each event; Small in the 100-yard breaststroke and Dong in the 200-yard breaststroke.
In the 200-yard backstroke, Lahey holds third place. Sophomore Ben Falcioni is ranked fourth in the 400-yard individual medley.
In light of the rankings and the team’s performance at the Speedo Cup (termed “”amazing”” by McGihon), the team’s prospects for the national championships are good. Since nothing is set in stone ‹ because several months of the season still remain ‹ the swimmers’ success will depend on their training and competition in that time.
Harlan, Delurgio and Bogard,will compete at the U.S. Open Championship in Federal Way, Wash., from Dec. 4 to Dec. 6, but the majority of the team will compete very little in the next month. Instead, the swimmers will focus on training. Throughout all but one week of the winter break the team will stay at UCSD, working out twice a day.
Junior Kimmie Rice is leaving the team permanently. She plans to study abroad in Italy during the winter and spring quarters and will graduate in June. The Speedo Cup was her last meet.
“”The team is really going to miss her; she brings so much energy to the team,”” Hyjek said.
In addition to UCSD, such schools as the Air Force Academy, BYU, Cal Baptist, Cal Lutheran, Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Colorado State, Fresno State, La Verne, Loyola Marymount, New Mexico State, Oregon State, Pacific, Pepperdine, Pomona-Pitzer, San Jose State, Stanford, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Santa Cruz, University of San Diego and USC participated.
