On Friday, Oct. 10, and Saturday, Oct. 11, UC San Diego swimming kicked off its season at the Triton Invitational at Canyonview Aquatic Center. The Tritons finished third in both the men’s and women’s competitions.
The Tritons competed against a mix of conference and non-conference opponents: Cal and Stanford of the ACC and fellow Big West members Hawai’i and UC Santa Barbara. Stanford only competed in the women’s competition.
“It was really fun, especially because we had really fast teams like Stanford and Cal, and then we also had the fastest teams in our conference, Hawai’i and UCSB,” senior Chloe Braun said to The UCSD Guardian after the meet.
On Friday, the competition quickly fell behind to the might of Cal, the winners of the day’s first seven events. The highlights of the session came in the women’s 100-yard backstroke, where Triton sophomore Madison O’Connell finished second with a time of 54.33. Later in the day, sophomore Hunter Cehelnik finished third in the men’s 50-yard freestyle with a time of 20.17.
Eighteen more events took place on Saturday. In the women’s 100-yard breaststroke, Braun — who qualified for the NCAA championships last year — finished third with a time of 1:01.34. Later, in the men’s 200-yard backstroke, senior Luigi Franco finished third with a time of 1:46.69.
Following the lunch break, freshman Zachary Tower — competing in his first collegiate event — finished third in the men’s 1650-yard freestyle. Sophomore Charlie Franz finished 13 seconds behind Tower to take fourth. In the men’s 200-yard breaststroke, sophomore Bekzhan Yessengeldy blazed to a second-place finish with a time of 2:01.44.
“We [finished] as the first team in our conference,” Braun said. “We’re in front of Hawai’i and UCSB, so it sets us up really well, but it’s still super early.”
The Tritons return to Canyonview Aquatic Center on Saturday, Oct. 18, to face Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Simon Fraser.
