SWIM & DIVE — UCSD had a busy winter break in the water,
first traveling to Las Vegas to compete in the UNLV Winter Invitational on Dec.
15 and 16. Next, the swim and dive teams split up as the men’s team returned
home to face the Air Force Academy 4 and the women’s team took to the road
again to take on Loyola Marymount University. All teams struggled in their
separate competitions, but there were some outstanding individual performances
that proved that the Tritons are ready to finish strong before the NCAA
Division II Championships begin on Mar. 12.
At the UNLV diving meet, senior Andrew Skewes notched a
fourth-place finish in three-meter diving and an eighth-place finish in
one-meter diving. The men had the most success as a team in the three-meter
diving event, as Skewes was followed by sophomore Kevin Sullivan in eighth,
senior Jeff Bryant in 17th and senior Aaron Cantu in 19th place. In the
one-meter event, Bryant finished 13th and was closely followed by Sullivan and
Cantu, who finished in 15th and 16th, respectively.
The women’s diving team had success as well in the one-meter
diving competition, with senior Nicole Stasio finishing 11th, followed by
sophomore Jennifer Lappe in 14th and senior Amanda Mason in 18th.
With winter break’s meets in the books, team is now focusing
on qualifying for postseason competition.
“We had a decent showing at Las Vegas, but after a long week
of finals, we did as well as could be expected,” Bryant said. “Now that we’re
coming up on the end of the season, we’re trying to qualify as many divers for
nationals as we can.”
The men’s swim team hosted a relay meet against the Air
Force Academy on Jan. 4 but fell by a final score of 37-76, managing to win
just one event out of seven against the formidable Falcons. The lopsided score
may have been partially due to the fact that the Falcons fielded several relay
teams, while the Tritons only swam a single team for a majority of the events.
The relay meet featured a variety of uncommon swimming
races, such as three-person 225 stroke relays and a six-person 150 freestyle
relay. The Tritons won the 225-meter backstroke relay with a team of junior
Adam Jones, junior Steven Hardy and sophomore Scott McCoid in 1:57.28. The
225-meter breaststroke relay of sophomore Andy Islip, freshman Brandon Maryatt
and senior Evan Hsiao finished second in 2:09.76, falling behind Air Force by
only .09 seconds.
The women’s swim team lost a close duel with conference
rival Loyola Marymount University on Jan. 5. Although both teams won seven
events each and the Tritons came away with both relay wins, the Lions snuck
past UCSD with a three-point win in the overall competition.
“It was a tough loss against LMU because they are our
conference rivals,” junior Aubrey Panis said. “We worked through it, and
hopefully we will be able to build off this meet to improve in future meets.”
Despite the loss, there were some outstanding individual and
relay performances. The Tritons started the meet by winning the 400 medley relay
with Panis, junior Kendall Bohn, junior Jennifer Sims and junior Erinn Deters
in a time of 4:02.06. Sims also won the 200 butterfly in a time of 2:08.02 and
the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.84. Freshman Anju Shimura won both of her
events as well, taking the 100 backstroke in a time of 1:00.07 and winning the
200 backstroke in 2:10.83.
The final event was the 400 freestyle relay, and the Tritons
swam a relay team that consisted of junior Shannon Simonds, senior Lauren
Forbes, Panis and Shimura. Going into the last leg of the relay, LMU had nearly
a 1.5-second lead over the Tritons, but Shimura swam a speedy 52.55 in her leg
of the 100 freestyle, catching the competition and bringing the Tritons the 400
freestyle relay title.
“We swam well considering we haven’t had a meet in two
months,” Sims said. “Anju catching up and winning the last relay was
motivational and inspiring. We are ready for our next meet.”
With some excellent individual and team performances these
past few weeks, the Tritons are ready to compete again and improve on their
previous meets. With only a few meets left before the conference and then
national championships, they will be looking to improve on their times and
dives and qualify as many athletes as possible.