Cal Baptist also defeated the men’s Simon Fraser team with a score of 152–128 this past weekend.
On the women’s end, the Tritons took home individual wins in many events. Juniors Erika Rodman and Anji Shakya as well as freshman Rosa Bebi all placed first in their events. Rodman took the 1000-yard freestyle (10:31.58) and the 500-yard freestyle (5:06.50), while freshman Dari Watkins finished just behind her in the 500-yard freestyle (5:13.07).
Shakya finished first in the 100-yard backstroke (58.09) in the first of five Triton sweeps, as junior Sandy Hon finished right behind (58.55) and sophomore Sierra Robbins came in third (1:02.16). In the 200-yard backstroke, Shakya also touched the wall first with a time of 2:06.68, just in front of teammates Hon (2:10.07) and junior Lindsay Oosterhouse (2:14.66).
Bebi won the 100-yard breaststroke (1:08.12) as well as the 200-yard breaststroke (2:26.18), followed by senior Casey Adams in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:27.55) who placed second.
Freshman Kyle Nadler, sophomore Dane Stassi and senior diver Tyler Runsten led the UCSD men’s team with individual wins. Nadler finished first in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:43.95) and the 500-yard freestyle (4:45.30), ahead of fellow freshman Paul Li in the 1000-yard freestyle (9:44.59) and AJ Zavala in his first collegiate 500-yard freestyle (4:46.49).
“To me, it wasn’t so much about the top guys today; I think most of the stand-out swims came from our rookies Kyle Nadler, who swam the 1000 and 500 free. Those are really tough events, and he won both,” UCSD head coach Matt Macedo said. “Paul Li, his teammate, who got sick this week, usually leads that charge, so to see that role reversal just shows what great training partners they are.”
Stassi also took first in the 200-yard butterfly (1:51.60) and the 100-yard butterfly (51.33).
Runsten swept all diving events to achieve an NCAA-qualifying score of 316.87 on the three-meter springboard after another qualifying score on the one-meter springboard last weekend.
Other notable victories included sophomore Megan Lee’s first career dual victory in the 400 individual medley (4:39.73) and senior Amber Tan touching the wall first in the 50-yard freestyle (24.12), just ahead of Shakya (24.17). Additionally, freshman Naomi Thomas won the 200-yard butterfly (2:05.75), sophomore Jaclyn Amog touched first in the 100-yard butterfly (57.52) and junior Natalie Mouzooni won the one-meter diving with a score of 199.12.
For the men, Alex Merrill won the 200-yard freestyle (1:43.96), Michael Leung touched first in the 100-yard backstroke (52.09) and Nick Korth won the 100-yard breaststroke (55.57).
“This sport is unforgiving at times, and it’s a lot of hard work, so to see them really step up and swim all as a team while being led by the seniors; I mean, that’s really what today is all about.”
Sixteen Triton seniors were recognized before the meet on UCSD’s last home meet of the season: Casey Adams, Beth Dong, Olivia Fountain, Mishka Hulka, Mercedes O’Brien, Amber Tan, Katherine Tse, Julius Espiritu, Mark Guyler, Paul Guzman, Jacob Lammott, Adam Rice, Tyler Runsten, Jeremy Smith, James Sonu and Adam Yen.
The Tritons will compete in another dual meet this coming Saturday, Jan. 26 against Division-I Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
