UC San Diego swimming honored its nine seniors ahead of last Saturday’s meet against California Baptist University at Canyonview Pool. Each one ran through a tunnel of teammates’ arms as parents showered them with flowers and hugs. The celebratory atmosphere continued into the meet as UCSD won race after race; the rest of the Tritons had their seniors’ backs. UCSD benefited from key performances from swimmers of all ages en route to a blowout victory over the CBU Lancers. The women were victorious 206.5–55.5, and the men won by a score of 162–100.
The two victories are a continuation of what has been a strong season for both squads. In a post-meet interview with The UCSD Guardian, head coach Marko Djordjevic credited his seniors with creating a culture of success for their younger teammates to build upon.
“They definitely inspire the whole team,” Djordjevic said. “Having seniors inspiring younger teammates always makes this meet special.”
This standard of excellence set by the seniors was on full display during Saturday’s meet. The Tritons leaned heavily on spectacular performances from their underclassmen to defeat the Lancers.
Sophomore Eva Boehlke scored a meet-high 29 points for the Tritons, winning the 100-yard backstroke, 50-yard butterfly, and 100-yard butterfly. Boehlke also contributed an impressive butterfly leg to UCSD’s first place finish in the 200-yard medley relay. Her 100-yard butterfly time — 54.20 seconds — was Boehlke’s best race of the year for the event.
The Lancers couldn’t catch up to the Tritons all day; on the women’s side, a UCSD swimmer won nearly every event, except the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. Even in those two events, the Tritons managed to secure all of the remaining points.
The Triton women especially flexed their muscles in the 200-yard fly. They staked claim over the top five positions, with every swimmer posting their best time of the season. Freshman Edana Huang finished first with a time of 2:01.47, besting fellow freshman teammate Kelsey Leung by less than a second.
In the 200-yard individual medley, freshman duo Sydney Niles and Leung swept, placing first and second, respectively. Leung finished with her best time of the season, as did junior Minh-Nha Kawamura and sophomore Iris Bayan.
The top four spots in the 200-yard freestyle also went to the Tritons. Junior Sophia Bell finished first with a personal best of 1:49.20, beating her previous record by almost a full second. Junior Audrey Moore, sophomore Asia Kozan, and freshman Madison O’Connell came in second, third, and fourth, respectively.
On the men’s side, freshman Bekzhan Yessengeldy led the Triton charge by racking up 23 points, finishing third in the 100-yard breaststroke and first in the 200-yard breaststroke and 200-yard individual medley. His blazing time of 1:59.94 in the 200-yard breaststroke was a personal best.
Senior Nathan Lee had a sensational outing for his final meet at Canyonview, taking first place in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard backstroke; he set new personal bests in both the 100-yard backstroke and his 50-yard backstroke leg of the 200-yard relay medley.
The men’s best event of the day was the 50-yard freestyle, where all five Tritons stormed to the finish line before the first Lancer could even touch the wall. Freshman Jacob Wang’s first-place time of 20.53 seconds was almost a full second faster than CBU’s best time in the short-distance event.
In the second-to-last race of the day, UCSD gutted out an impressive win in the 400-yard freestyle relay. Senior Ryan Kirton led off for the Tritons and posted a speedy 45.97 seconds in his final laps at Canyonview. The Triton’s A-squad was neck and neck with CBU’s for the rest of the relay, and the race came down to a photo finish. UCSD’s anchor, junior Aidan Rikic, touched the wall a hair before the Lancers’ anchor, and the Tritons were victorious.
The Tritons honored their seniors with what Djordjevic called, “one of our best performances of the season.”
The women’s squad now prepares for a cross-town battle with the University of San Diego next Saturday, Feb. 1. Though the men’s squad won’t be making the trip with them this time, they will reconvene in Houston on Feb. 12 for the Big West Championships. UCSD will look to ride its positive momentum from this meet and claim conference supremacy over Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, UC Davis, Hawai’i, and UC Santa Barbara.
