SWIMMING ‘amp; DIVING ‘mdash; Blazing through the water and setting several new school records, the Tritons finished strong in the NCAA Division-II Championship, held from March 11 to March 14. Over a dozen previous UCSD records were broken, capped by senior captain Daniel Perdew’s NCAA fastest-ever 100-yard freestyle race.
After the first day, the women’s team sat firmly in third place behind Wayne State University and 2007 champion Drury University, while the men were stationed in ninth place and in tight competition for fifth.
The day’s highlight was the national championship of the Triton women’s 200-yard medley relay team: sophomore Anju Shimura, freshman Mercedes O’Brien, sophomore Jessica Ferguson and senior captain Aubrey Panis. The team needed a scorching anchor leg from Panis to take second, but as the waters settled, the scoreboard showed a disqualification for race winner Drury University, which elevated the Tritons to the championship rung.
Perdew almost snagged a second gold medal for the Tritons in the men’s 50-yard freestyle, but was forced to settle for silver despite his school-record time of 19.69 ‘mdash; just .03 seconds off the winning pace.
‘I sat down with the coaches at the beginning of the year and set a time that I wanted to meet,’ Perdew said. ‘I set that time, so I can’t say I’m disappointed by the time, but it feels a little disappointing being so close to winning.’
Despite school records set by senior Erin Deters, freshman Alexandra Henley and senior Knief Lohse, the day ended poorly for the Tritons when the men’s 200-yard medley relay team was disqualified due to an errant strobe light, after setting a school record in the preliminaries with a time of 1:30.34 ‘mdash; a time that would have placed them fifth in the finals.
‘The officiating was not great,’ Perdew said. ‘It wasn’t just us ‘mdash; a lot of teams were affected, but the officiating was really bad.’
UCSD bounced back on the second day, posting four new program records in four relay events. The women remained in third halfway through, while the men moved up to sixth.
‘You can’t be an elite team or score well in a championship meet if you don’t have strong relays,’ head coach Scott McGihon said. ‘They say a lot about your depth. You have to have a lot of people who can do different things.’
After the third day of racing, the Tritons remained entrenched in their standings from the previous day, with the women’s team all but guaranteed at least a third place finish and the men’s team still in a tight race ‘mdash; a mere 31 points separated fifth from ninth place.
As per this season and especially this meet, the relay teams put in strong final efforts. The women’s 800-freestyle relay team ‘mdash;’ Panis, Deters, Shimura and Douglas ‘mdash; broke the previous school record by four seconds, posting a 7:23.54 mark with a second-place finish behind Drury. The men’s team ‘mdash; junior Todd Langland, sophomore Brandon Maryatt, freshman Michael Lorche and anchor Lohse ‘mdash; set a school record in the same event with a time of 6:39.34.
After three days of steep national competition, illness struck several Tritons, including Panis.
‘We were having a great meet,’ Panis said. ‘Then some of us got sick and weren’t feeling well. That’s why I dropped from the final relay.’
Still, the final day saw even more records broke, with the UCSD women’s team finishing in third place, up one place from last year. The men’s team finished seventh in the meet after two disqualifications, matching their 2008 finish.
The day began with Perdew breaking the NCAA Division II record in the 100-yard freestyle, but his was not the only highlight. Bohn took home the gold medal in her specialty rac
e ‘mdash; the 200-yard breaststroke ‘mdash; leading throughout the event and clocking in at 2:15.55.
‘It was great to be a significant contributor at the fastest D-II meet in history,’ McGihon said.
Readers can contact Tyler Nelson at [email protected].