Senior send off for swimmers at Taylor Pool
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Feb. 6, 2010) – It was a rainy, cloudy, gloomy day, but the pool deck was full of six happy, smiling senior Tigers as they were introduced at Taylor Pool for the final time of their respective collegiate careers prior to Occidental’s final Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference dual-meet of the season. Both Oxy teams fell to Pomona-Pitzer, but not without some notable performances.
As they ran through a human tunnel, created by the rest of the team, each senior (Audrey Akcasu, Will Carlson, Jeven Dovey, Adam Kantor, Sara Mendoza and Austen Oliver) was greeted by head coach Alex Kuhn who presented the swimmers with individual quote sheets full of fond memories shared by their teammates.
Following the recognition the Tigers and Sagehens jumped in the pool for the final tune-up before SCIAC Championships. Pomona-Pitzer came out on top for both the men and women, winning 152-75 and 143-81, respectively.
Friday evening, Oxy got a jump-start to the meet when Sarah Sharpe and Marisa Pulcrano again finished 1-2 on both the one and three meter boards. Sharpe’s scores of 246.65 (one meter) and 259.10 (three meter) were both just off provisional NCAA qualifying scores.
In the 50 free Lauren Howarth and Danielle Garcia finished 1-2 in 25.76 and 25.93, respectively. Howarth went on to place second in the 100 free (56.41) and Garcia came in third in the 200 breast (2:42.33).
Alena Morris and Akcasu scored points for the Tigers in the 200 butterfly, placing 2-3.
For the men, Richard Dybas scored third place points for the Tigers in just his second dive meet ever and again he scored a personal best with a 124.10.
Between the lanes, Kantor was victorious in both the 50 freestyle (22.29) and 100 freestyle (49.15) events, which were both season best times. Stephen Ratkovich was third in the 50 free (22.93) and Oliver placed fifth (23.76) for Oxy.
Dovey also posted a season best time with his 2:19.54 finish in the 200 breaststroke. He also placed third in the 200 IM, completing the race in 2:08.58.
In the 200 fly Oxy took the second and third spots thanks to Riley Kimball and Alex Budig.
The Tigers’ 400 free relay team of Ratkovich, Miner Ross, Zach Condon and Kantor lowered their seed time, combining to swim the race in 3:22.75.
Occidental swimmers will begin tapering for SCIAC Championship, which will be held at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach on Sunday-Tuesday, Feb. 21-23. Divers will be back on the boards next weekend when they travel to the University of Redlands to compete at the SCIAC Diving Preliminaries. The top-8 divers on each board will advance to the Championships. Diving will be taking place all day on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 13-14 and will be hosted by Occidental College.