Swimming to School Records at SCIAC Championships

LONG BEACH, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2009) – In a day full of ups and downs for the Tiger swimmers and divers, Occidental concluded day two of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships with two more school records, one NCAA cut and a SCIAC Champion.

The time between the swimming preliminaries and finals was spent watching the top eight women’s 1-meter divers in the conference compete for a title. Senior Celeste Faber won that honor, posting 363.80 points ahead of sophomore teammate Marisa Pulcrano who pulled up in third (298.75).

During the morning preliminaries Mallory Ryan inked her name into the Oxy record books again, breaking teammate Eliza Callwood’s school record in the 100 butterfly. She finished seeded sixth with a time of 58.78, which was also an NCAA “B” cut time. In the final Ryan again lowered her time in the four-lap race to 58.65, remaining in sixth place. Claire Coddington finished 15^th overall, swimming the consolation heat in 1:02.58.

The Tiger women started the night in fine form, as Callwood, Kayla Schott-Bresler, Ryan and Audrey Akcasu  combined to break the 200 yard Medley Relay record (set in 2000 at 1:54.16) with a time of 1:54.14after entering the day 1:59.00.

Senior captain Erin Brinton swam her third career final in the 400 IM. Tonight she took 2.33 seconds off her previous best to finish fourth with a time of 4:42.77. In the consolation final of the same event, Schott-Bresler also lowered her time, finishing the race in 5:00.64. Schott-Bresler also swam in the consolation heat of the 100 breaststroke, placing 10^th in 1:11.32.  

Earning the first finals appearance of  her career, Karie Nickle, represented the Tigers in the 200 freestyle. Her time of 1:59.72 was an improvement on her morning swim and placed her eighth overall.

Eileen McMillan finished ninth in the consolation heat of the 200 freestyle, hitting the wall in an improved time of 2:01.27.

Later on in the night Callwood dove back into the pool for the final of the 100 backstroke. She placed fourth after swimming sub-one minute, finishing in 1:00.24.

Occidental men’s team captain Michael Wong earned a spot in the 400 IM final with a prelim swim of 4:26.47. In the finals he placed fourth, just out of contention for All-SCIAC recognition, in a time of 4:25.91. John Wensman swam in the consolation final, again lowering his time to 4:31.15, which was 12^th overall.

Jeven Dovey also finished just out of the Top-three with a fourth place finish in the 100 breaststroke (59.79). In the consolation heat of the event were both Abiel Garcia and William Carlson who finished in 1:03.08 and 1:03.57 respectively, placing 11^th and 14^th overall.

Adam Kantor was the fifth seed entering the 100 butterfly and came out with an improved time of 52.25 just one second off the NCAA “B” cut time.

A number of the men’s squad members qualified for consolation heats tonight.

In the consolation of the men’s 200 freestyle Michael Wade and Austen Oliver finished in 1:47.25 and 1:48.10, respectively, placing 13^th and 14^th overall. Also swimming a consolation tonight was junior Matt Harter, who pulled up 13^th in the 100 butterfly in 54.46.

Freshman Zach Condon and senior Jack Hans both swam the 100 backstroke consolation. Condon finished 12^th overall in 57.44 while Hans placed 15^th in 58.40.

Following the completion of day two competition the Oxy women were in fourth place with 324 points, behind Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (700), Redlands (400) and Pomona-Pitzer (377). Rounding out the field were Cal Lutheran (256), La Verne (145), Caltech (136) and Whittier (119).

The Tiger men were fifth behind CMS (657.5), Redlands (565), Pomona-Pitzer (288.5) and Cal Lutheran (272) with 247 points. The rest of the teams in order are Whittier (153), Caltech (141) and ULV (124).

Occidental and all the other SCIAC schools will re-convene on Saturday morning for the final day of competition at the 2009 SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships. Again preliminaries will begin at 11:00 a.m. with finals starting at 6:00 p.m. Prior to the start of the finals the SCIAC will recognize the graduating seniors, beginning at 5:45 p.m.

If you can’t make it out to the pool, check out the SCIAC website where there is a link to the Floswimming, who will be broadcasting races from the 2009 SCIAC Championships.