SWIMMING ‘amp; DIVING ‘mdash; With a spectacular 2008-09 campaign already on the books, the UCSD men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams capped off their respective seasons with victories at the Pacific Coast Swimming and Diving conference championships last week in Long Beach. The event started on Feb. 18 and ended on Feb. 21, and featured teams from across the Pacific Coast, ranging from University of Alaska-Fairbanks and Seattle University all the way down to UCSD. The men’s team completely obliterated the competition with a total of 1,561 points ‘mdash; over 400 more than second-place UC Santa Cruz. The women’s team did not win as definitively, earning 1,403 points; just 20 points over rival Loyola Marymount University. Despite tough competition from the Lions, the Triton women took first place in the tournament and will be sending 14 swimmers to nationals ‘mdash; a program record ‘mdash; along with 11 swimmers from the men’s team.
‘We’re pretty excited,’ head coach Scott McGihon said. ‘We didn’t really expect the meet to turn out like this.’
The meet began incredibly fast, with the women’s 200-yard medley relay team taking first in the opening race of the day with a school-record time of 1:45.29. Led by freshman Shea Kopp, freshman Mercedes O’Brien, sophomore Jessica Ferguson and senior captain Aubrey Panis, the relay team set the Tritons’ tempo for the rest of the meet.
‘It was a really close meet and we did a great job of pulling it off,’ Panis said. ‘We didn’t know for sure what the result would be until the very end of the last heat, so we were all very tense.’
The top UCSD women’s finishes belonged to freshman butterfly specialist Alexandra Henley, who took second place in the 200-yard individual medley with a time of 2:05.91, first place in the 400-yard individual medley with a time of 4:25.87, participated in the 400-yard individual medley relay which took first place with a time of 3:50.98 and set a meet record in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 2:01.82. Senior breaststroke specialist Kendall Bohn also had a remarkable meet, placing first in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 1:03.54 and in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:16.22. UCSD swept the 200-yard race with O’Brien taking second and junior breaststroke specialist Carianne Cunningham placing third.
The 400-yard individual medley relay team of Henley, Bohn, junior butterfly specialist Karla Holman and senior captain Shannon Simonds also took first place, with a time of 3:50.98.
‘Our girls really showed they could handle the pressure in a close meet,’ McGihon said. ‘It’s good for them and it will help prepare us for nationals.’
Sophomore backstroke specialist Anju Shimura missed the meet because she was battling the flu. Despite the star’s absence, the team showcased its depth by prevailing against the odds.
On the men’s team, top honors belonged to senior individual medley specialist Knief Lohse, who took first place in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 4:30.56 and first place in the 200-yard free
style with a time of 1:39.57. Senior captain Daniel Perdew also blew away competition in the final conference meet of his collegiate career, taking second in the 100-yard butterfly with a time of 50.13, first in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.47 and first in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 45.26. The men’s 200-yard medley relay team, led by senior captain Steve Hardy, junior Juan Carrillo, Perdew and junior Todd Langland, took second place with a time of 1:31.17 ‘mdash; another great accomplishment for the biggest meet of the year.
The men’s 800-yard freestyle relay team took second place, with a time of 6:45.76 led by freshman Brandon Maryatt, Langland, freshman Michael Lorch and Lohse. The 200-yard freestyle relay team of freshman Sam Stromberg, Todd Langland, freshman Blake Langland and Perdew finished first with a time of 1:22.10. The Tritons closed out a terrific meet that was effectively locked by Thursday night with a second place finish in the 400-yard freestyle relay.
‘We really wanted to beat those guys,’ Perdew said of UCSD’s conference opponents. ‘We lost last year to them by such a short margin so we just wanted to come and blow them away.’
With the women’s team being the stronger squad during most of the regular season, the results were slightly unexpected.
‘I thought our guys would have a pretty close meet and the girls would run away with it, but this just goes to show how deep of a team we are and how we can really compete,’ McGihon said.
The Tritons will take some much-needed rest after this meet before traveling to the NCAA Division-II finals in Houston, Texas, on March 11.
Readers can contact’ Tyler Nelson at [email protected].