UCSD Sweeps Pacific Coast

The UC San Diego swimming and diving teams completed their four-day stay in Long Beach at the Pacific Coast Swimming Conference Championships by repeating as winners on both the men’s and women’s side of the event.  The Triton men finished with 1535 points, 172.5 points ahead of second place Seattle University, and the women outdistanced runner-up Loyola Marymount by just 6.5 points with a total of 1379.

Alex Henley’s third conference championship in record time during the 200 back and Beth Dong’s win in the 1650 free helped the UCSD women’s squad hold on for the close win.  Jereme Barnett-Woods and Dan Perdew, along with the 400 free relay team, put away the men’s side of competition in dominating fashion with wins on the final day of conference championship action.

Barnett-Woods won the 1650 free event with a final time of 15:51.09, with fellow Tritons Kyle Begovich and Chris Baier placing second and third in the event. Perdew’s win in the 100 free came with a time of 44.63 in the finals, with brothers Todd and Blake Langland finishing consecutively in third and fourth. Perdew and the Langland brothers also joined with Sam Stromberg in winning the 400 free relay with a time of 3:00.63, .05 seconds away from the UCSD record that stood since 1990.

Henley completed her amazing PCSC performance with another school record and meet record in the 200 back, finishing in 2:00.78, while Anju Shimura was the runner-up in the event at 2:02.84. Dong’s time of 17:11.70 in the 1650 won the event by nearly nine full seconds. Cari Cunningham finished third in the 200 breast with an NCAA qualifying time of 2:20.36, just ahead of fourth-place finisher Neda Nguyen’s time of 2:21.40. The women’s 400 free relay team of Shimura, Amber Tan, Jessica Ferguson, and Henley concluded UCSD’s stay in Long Beach with an NCAA qualifying time of 3:27.04, with Tan joining her teammates as an NCAA qualifier.

UCSD, after entering the event with 22 student-athletes having qualified for the national championships, surpassed last season’s total of 26 competitors with their performance during the PCSC Championships.  Head coach Scott McGihon will lead this year’s contingent into Canton, Ohio for the NCAA Division II National Championships, taking place March 10-13.