SWIM & DIVE — UCSD broke 10 school records, won three
events and had a Triton awarded Male Swimmer of the Meet at the four-day NCAA
Division II National Championships at the
of
very small team, the Triton women managed to place fourth overall and the men,
led by the meet’s best swimmer, sophomore sprinter Daniel Perdew, took seventh.
“This was a great meet for us,” junior Aubrey Panis said.
“It really reflected all the training we did and all the work we put into the
other competitions.”
The first day of nationals set the pace with two new school
records and a win. Perdew won his first event, the 50-yard freestyle, and set a
new school record with a time of 20.07 seconds. Meanwhile, the women’s team set
a new school record while placing third in the 200-yard medley relay. The team
of juniors —Panis, Kendall Bohn, Jennifer Sims and Erinn Deters — will have
their names in the school record books after their combined time of 1:45.12.
The second day of nationals showed more of the same, as the
Tritons set an additional three school records. Starting the day off with the
200-yard freestyle relay, the women placed second with a time of 1:34.66 from a
team of freshmen, consisting of freshman Anju Shimura, Panis, Deters and junior
Shannon Simonds.
The men followed with a third-place finish and a school
record in their own 200-yard freestyle relay. Sophomore sprinters Perdew and
Todd Langland teamed up with senior Evan Hsiao and freshman Brandon Maryatt to
finish third with their record-breaking time of 1:21.54.
Junior Steven Hardy, Hsiao, Perdew and Langland placed fifth
in the 400-yard medley with a time of 3:22.00 for the men’s team while the
women’s team placed second and raced to a school record in the same event
behind Shimura, Bohn, sophomore Karla Holman and Simonds, swimming a 3:48.13.
Panis placed eighth in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:52.47 and
the women’s 100-yard butterfly turned out to be an exciting race between Holman
and Sims, with both swimmers breaking the school record. In the end, Holman
placed fourth, edging out fifth-place Sims with her time of 56.02.
Three more school records fell on the third day: Shimura
placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke with 56.53; Bohn raced to fourth place
in the 100-yard breaststroke in 1:04.45; and Sims broke her own school record
in the 200-yard butterfly, dropping 2.23 seconds off her previous time to place
second with a time of 2:01.84. To finish out the day, Panis, freshman Ashtyn
Douglas, Deters and Shimura swam a new school record of 7:29.18 in the women’s
800-yard freestyle relay.
UCSD continued to impress on final day of the meet, as the
Tritons won two events and toppled their 10th school record of the meet. Senior
Andrew Skewes was the only diver to place in the meet’s top eight, taking
seventh in the men’s 3-meter diving. In the 400-freestyle relay, Panis, Deters,
3:28.20. On the men’s side, Langland, Maryatt, junior Kneif Lohse and Perdew
swam to third place in 3:00.69.
In the women’s 200-yard breaststroke, Bohn outpaced the
competition with a time of 2:17.71 to win. Perdew solidified his place as Male
Swimmer of the Meet with a win and school record in the men’s 100-yard
freestyle. Perdew raced to a first place first-place finish with 44.23 and was
followed by fellow sprinter Langland in sixth with 44.98.
“We really came together as a team for this meet and it
definitely showed with the 10 school records we set,” Panis said. “This meet
really showed what we were capable of as a team.”
