Senior Rosanna Delurgio earned CollegeSwimming.com’s National Swimmer of the Week honor for her performance at the Speedo Cup at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif., on Nov. 18 through Nov. 20. Delurgio captured first place in the 200-yard breaststroke, second place in the 100 breast and sixth in the 50 free. The team finished fifth out of 18 teams entered, after working through an intense, three-way battle for fourth place between the Tritons, UC Irvine and BYU. The Anteaters ultimately won after edging the Tritons by 22 points, 702-680. UCSD pulled together for 12 NCAA “A” qualifying times at the meet.
Delurgio beat her second-place counterpart in the 200 breast event by more than a full second, edging Nevada’s Stephanie Gabert in a time of 2 minutes, 16.2 seconds to 2:16.38. Delurgio was seeded third behind first-seed Gabert after coming in more than two-and-a-half seconds back in the preliminary heat, setting herself up for the upset victory.
In the 100 breast event, Delurgio finished second to Stanford’s Caroline Bruce, with times of 1:01.75 and 1:03.45, respectively. The two athletes were nearly deadlocked in the preliminary heat of the event, finishing the qualifying round separated by barely 0.3 seconds, 1:03.63 and 1:03.94, as Bruce hung on to earn the top seed. Even though Delurgio dropped almost a half second in the finals, Bruce shaved almost two full seconds from her time for the victory.
Delurgio and sophomore Emily Harlan placed sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 50 free. Harlan charged through the preliminary heat to a second-place finsh behind Stanford’s Lacey Boutwell in a time of 23.78 seconds. Harlan was unable to return with such intensity for the afternoon finals heat and added 0.08 seconds to her morning time while dropping to seventh place. Delurgio’s fourth-place, 23.97-second prelims finish did not carry over into the finals heat, despite dropping an additional 0.13 seconds between the two races. In the finals, UC Irvine’s Chealsea Nagata and Oregon State’s Brie Marhenke, who were seeded fifth and sixth in prelims, respectively, each climbed past Delurgio in the finals to take fourth and fifth place. Only 0.57 seconds divided Delurgio’s pace from the event winner, Stanford freshman Brooke Bishop, who finished in 23.27 seconds.
In addition to earning an NCAA “A” qualifying time in the 50 free, Harlan’s fourth-place finish in the 100 free in a time of 52.13 seconds was only 0.52 seconds behind Oregon State’s first-place Kristin Huston and easily passed for her second “A” qualifying time of the meet. Topping off her performance, she garnered a “B” qualifying time in the 100 backstroke, which she negative split, going out in 30.05 seconds and returning on the back half of the race in 29.71 to combine for a 59.76. She also managed another “B” qualifying time in the 200 free for her 13th-place, 1:55.0 finish.
Sophomore Susan Bell swam one of the most overall dominant meets for the Tritons, combining for NCAA “A” qualifying times in the 100 backstroke, 200 breaststroke, 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley and 500 freestyle, plus NCAA “B” qualifying times in the 100 breaststroke and the 200 backstroke.
Junior Sophie Levy led Triton distance swimmers with three NCAA “A” qualifying times in the 200, 500 and 1,650 free events. In the 200 free, she turned in a time of 1:53.78 to secure a sixth-place finish in the finals heat, dominated by Stanford swimmers who took first, third, fourth and fifth places in the event. In the 500 free, Levy swam a 5:03.41 in the preliminary heat, giving her a 13th seed for finals; however, in a frustrating turn of events, she added time in the afternoon race, turning in a 5:05.26 for a 16th-place finish.
Each of UCSD’s relays were successful, hitting NCAA “A” qualifying times with a 1:47.14 in the 200 medley, a 3:52.22 in the 400 medley, a 1:34.80 in the 400 free and a 7:38.45 in the 800 free.
