Tiger Women Tear Past Beavers

LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Jan. 16, 2009) – Occidental College women’s swimming and diving team defeated Caltech 181-56 today in a dual meet held at Taylor Pool with diving events taking place at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center.

The women got an early advantage behind first place diving performances from Celeste Faber on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. Teammate Kyle Owens also turned in a second place finish on the 1-meter board, her only event of the day.

Erin Brinton won the 1650 free by more than four minutes with a time of 18:47.80 followed by teammate Mallory Kaufman to finish 1-2 in the event. Brinton, a senior captain, also won the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:25.38 while Mallory won the 200 butterfly in a time of 2:19.52.

Eliza Callwood won a pair of events. She swam the 200 IM in 2:22.90 and the 500 free in 5:42.38.

Also turning in first place performances today were Claire Coddington (50 free – 26.82), Kayla Schott-Bresler (200 breaststroke – 2:43.37) and Audrey Akcasu (100 free – 59.50) who shaved more than a second off her time.

Sarah Hunt and Rebecca Hofer improved their times as well. Hunt was second in the 2000 fly, finishing in 2:35.49, 2.51 seconds faster than her previous best. Hofer took 1.67 seconds off her 100 free time to finish under a minute at 59.63.

Two other significant improvements came from Nancy Moore who took 5.68 seconds off her 500 free time and Lauren Gerber who swam more than 12 seconds faster than she had before in the 200 breast.

The women opened the meet with a 1-2 finish in the 200 Medley Relay with the winning team of Callwood, Schott-Bresler, Hunt and Eileen McMillan finishing in 2:04.18. They then capped the meet off with a victory in the 200 free relay behind a 1:51.64 finish by Ryan, Coddington, Chloe Thulstrup and Akcasu.

Occidental swimmers and divers will be back in the pool tomorrow morning when they host the University of Redlands. Diving is slated to begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center before the swimming events commence at Taylor pool beginning at noon.