As 20 women’s teams and 13 men’s teams gathered for the Speedo Cup Tournament at Long Beach State University, the Tritons reminded the swim community of the potential threat they could bring to the NCAA Championships with their talented display.
The women finished second overall and the men sixth, with both teams combining for 17 NCAA-qualifying swimmers, 12 on the women’s side and five on the men’s.
“For each event there is a different time standard and if you swim an ‘A’ cut, you make the national cut,”” senior captain Emily Starkie said. “If you make one ‘A’ cut, all your ‘B’ cuts from the rest of the year automatically qualify you for the national championship.””
Many of the teams included in the three-day event are competing at the Division I level.
“It was one of the best finishes [of] the past few years for the women,”” Starkie said. “The men had stiff competition … but we did really well overall being a Division II school.””
Seven of the women’s 12 NCAA-qualifying swimmers made it happen on day one.
In the first event of the meet, the relay team of sophomore Aubrey Panis, senior Liz Whiteley, sophomore Katie Baier and senior Emily Harlan finished first in the 200-meter freestyle with a national qualifying time of one minute, 36.30 seconds. Harlan’s anchor split of 23.01 seconds was the fastest in the field.
“Starting out with a win was huge, especially because the relay team did it from lane eight, which stunned a lot of people,”” Starkie said.
Later in the evening, senior Susan Ball took the stage finishing third with a qualifying time of 2:06.51 in the 200 individual medley.
Harlan followed Bell with a first-place finish in the 50 freestyle, a sprinter specialty, with a NCAA-qualifying cut time of 23.75.
In the final event of the first night, Bell, sophomore Kendall Bohn, sophomore Jennifer Sims and Harlan completed the 400 medley relay in 3:52.27 — good enough to make the qualifying cut. Bell’s 57.73 lead-off leg also qualified her for the 100 backstroke.
Senior Tim Fuller finished the 50 freestyle with not only a qualifying time, but also a lifetime best of 20.77.
He was also a part of the 400 medley relay team with sophomore Steven Hardy, junior Evan Hsiao and senior Jesse Marin that swam to a NCAA-qualifying time of 3:23.83.
On day two, the women’s 200 medley relay composed of Bell, Bohn, junior Heather Szmidt and Harlan swam to a NCAA-qualifying 1:46.70.
Senior Lauren O’Neill, at 4:33.09, and Bell, at 4:32.17, added two more NCAA-qualifying times for the women in the 400 individual medley. Sophomore Shannon Simonds was the final qualifying swimmer on day two for the women’s team in the 800 freestyle relay, finishing fourth with a time of 7:43.15.
For the men, sophomore Devin Ancona, Hsiao, Marin and Fuller got things started off with an NCAA-qualifying 1:33.14 in the 200 medley relay.
Fuller and Hsiao added the other two qualifying cut times for the men — Fuller’s in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:40.85 and Hsiao’s in the 100 breaststroke at 57.06.
The final day proved to be the women’s strongest as they had NCAA qualifiers in every event of the day.
In the 1,650 freestyle, senior Andrea Lippin qualified with a time of 17:27.43. In the 200 backstroke, Bell’s time of 2:05.39 and Panis’ 2:05.89 were enough to qualify for nationals.
Additionally, Harlan made the cut in the 100 freestyle, swimming a 52.01, while Bohn qualified with a time of 2:20.58 in the 200 breaststroke.
Finally, Sims made it in the 200 butterfly in 2:07.40, and the team of Bell, Panis, Simonds and Harlan placed fourth in the 400 free relay in 3:32.23.
“I was especially impressed with Lauren O’Neill and Andrea Panis, who swam their first ever NCAA-qualifying times,”” Starkie said.
The men didn’t have as much luck on day three, resulting in only one NCAA qualifier with Fuller’s 45.36 finish in the 100 freestyle.
The UCSD diving team is back in action Dec. 1 to Dec. 2 for the Redlands Diving Invitational. UCLA will host the next women’s-only swim meet on Jan. 6.
