In a quick morning session, some expected swimmers made some statements, but it was the 100 yard freestyle swim off that got the crowd and teams loud on the final morning of the 2011 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships hosted by Occidental College at the Belmont Olympic Plaza.
200 Backstroke
All eight finalists swam under the two-minute mark entering finals. In heat three, Nick Ostreim from CMS was just a half a second off an NCAA “A” cut as he cruised to a 1:50.57 victory earning the top seed for the evening session while breaking his own school record. The Meet and SCIAC record holder, Max Scholten, took three seconds off his seed time to go a 1:53.58 for PP. A trio of Stags clinched the 3-4-5 spots entering this evening with Austin Hallett (1:54.22), Blake Weber (1:56.38) and Phil Brady (1:57.04) joining Ostreim swimming for CMS tonight. Joe LaBriola (PP) swam a 1:57.92 to earn a trip to the finals with a pair of Bulldogs, Mike Reilly (1:58.61) and Benjamin Ballard (1:59.79) wrapping up the final two spots.
100 Freestyle
After the seven heats of swims, there was a tie for the 16th spot, forcing a swim off between ULV junior Andrew Mackay and PP senior Matt Ward. It was Ward, in 48.58, during in his final SCIAC Championships who came out in front after the duo again swam a very close race throughout, producing the loudest crowd of the morning. Sean Fitzgerald and Devin Bowers to the top two seeds as the 1-2 finishers in heat six, going 46.35 and 46.54, respectively. The Redlands-Whittier battle between Tyler Harp and Chris Evans was as head-to-head as they come as the duo tied, swimming the final prelim set locked at 46.61. Grant East from CLU went a 47.05 ahead of UR’s Matthew Zaggy and PP’s Andrew Kinimaka who were separated by a hundredth of a second at 47.52 and 47.53, respectively. Rounding out the top eight will be CMS junior Jeff McNerney who swam a 47.61.
200 Breaststroke
A two-time 100 breaststroke SCIAC champion, Vincent Pai looks to return to the top of the podium in this event as he did last night in the 100 after an injury sidelined him at the 2010 Championships. The junior from CMS made a statement in the pool, after opening with a 58.32 split, cruising to a 2:03.05 finishing with a smile on his face as he enters this evening’s race as a seven second favorite. CLU freshman Conrad Sheffer earned the number two seed after swimming a 2:10.34 to win heat two. Another heat victor was ULV’s Marc Okimura, winning the third heat in a time of 2:11.73. Brad Perfect qualified for finals after swimming behind Pai in a time of 2:10.97. A trio of freshmen earned the chance to compete tonight with Clint Freeman (UR), Anthony Nguyen (CLU) and Bo Lee (CMS) going 2:11.93, 2:14.36 and 2:15.52, respectively. Rounding out the championship field is CMS sophomore Nathan Lessen (2:16.08).
200 Butterfly
There were a 17 swimmers, competing for 16 spots tonight and the field was pretty tight. In the first heat, Jordan Lieberman set the bar high in the first heat of the race, missing an NCAA “B” cut by a tenth of a second in a 1:53.96. David Oryton led for the first 150 yards, but Brendan Huss turned at the 150 to eliminate the gap as the duo swam the final two lengths of the race neck-in-neck. Huss finished just off a Meet Record, while reaching an NCAA “B” cut with a swim of 1:52.94 to enter the evening as the top seed for CMS while Oryton went a 1:54.37. In another close heat, Christopher Depew (UR) and Brian Nadler (UR) went into their flip-turns simultaneously with 25 yards to go as Depew touched the pads in 1:55.32 followed closely by Nadler in 1:56.04. Erik Peterson will appear in the championship final during his last day of SCIAC swimming for PP, going a 1:57.21. Sophomore Sagehen Tommy DePaoli will swim tonight after clocking in with a 1:57.48 with freshman Benjamin Sullivan qualifying for another final for Occidental with a time of 1:58.09.
This evening’s events will begin with the conclusion of the mile swim, which took place following the completion of the prelims this morning. After individual events, the meet will conclude with the 400 Free Relay.
Entering the final day of competition Claremont-Mudd-Scripps is in the lead with 612 points followed by the University of Redlands with 516. Pomona-Pitzer clings to third with a 327. Cal Lutheran University is currently in fourth with a 288 just ahead of the University of La Verne (215.5), Whittier College (203), Caltech (159.5) and Occidental College (151).
Tonight the day three finals will get underway at 5:00 p.m. following senior recognitions at 4:45. Be sure to log on to the SCIAC Championship website for the most in-depth coverage where you can watch live, listen and track results as they happen.
Women’s SCIAC Swimming & Diving Championship fields set for Finale
A number of school records went down at preliminaries this morning with an NCAA cut met as the women’s preliminaries set the stage for an day three Finals at the 2011 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships hosted by Occidental College at the Belmont Olympic Plaza.
200 Backstroke
The current SCIAC record holder, Tessa Dover, nearly broke her own Meet Record (2:04.56), swimming a 2:04.73. Dover opened more than a body length lead over UR sophomore Jessie Chansler (2:10.89) in the final 50 yards of the race to finish more than six seconds in front. In the final heat of the prelims, Elsa Cheng went a 2:07 flat for CMS, finishing ahead of CLU freshman Shelby Brooks 2:09.76 and teammate Jenni Rinker who was four hundredths of a second back in 2:09.80. The final three spots for finals came out of the first heat of the morning with UR sophomore Caitlin Michaels winning in a time of 2:09.51 followed by CMS’s Amy Tresenrider (2:11.02) and PP’s Julia Ticus (2:12.15).
100 Freestyle
Heat six saw a pair of freshmen duke it out in the pool with frontrunner Michelle Kee nearly breaking the CMS school record with a time of 52.13 while Occidental freshman Juliet Suess set a new Tigers’ record with a swim of 53.44. Joining the newcomers in the finals will be current SCIAC and Meet Record holder Alexandra Bollella (UR) and Emma Jones (CMS) who posted times of 53.28 and 53.26, respectively. The Bulldogs duo of Casey Sripramong (53.71) and Kathryn McIntosh (54.36) as well as Sagehens’ freshman Alex Lincoln (53.95) and Oxy sophomore Lauren Ransom (54.34) also earned slots in the final this evening.
200 Breaststroke
Caroline Chang has her sights set on returning to the top of the podium as she opened up a body length lead 125 yards in and led by two body lengths by the flip-turn at the 150 mark to finish just off the NCAA “B” cut. The Occidental freshman broke an 11 year old school record with a 2:25.08. Tung Chin won the first heat of the race to earn the number two seed tonight in 2:26.30 while McKenzie Nakamura was the top finisher in the second heat in 2:27.85 to enter the evening as the number four seed. Michelle Utama led from the gun and edged out Bulldog teammate Tiana Singley with a 2:27.35. Singley posted a 2:28.25. Finishing behind Chang and earning spots tonight are, Kelli Miller who will swim for CLU after going a 2:28.52 with CMS rounding out the field behind Olivia Graham (2:29.82) and Elica Sharifnia (2:30.32).
200 Butterfly
The top two seeds broke school records and met NCAA “B” cuts in the morning swim as leader Annika Jessen downed a CMS record set in 1999 by more than two seconds in a 2:06.37 while Occidental junior Mallory Ryan replaced her own record, lowering her swim by three seconds to 2:08.12. In heat two Charolette Dohrn took an early lead before Michelle Utama came back in the last 50 yards to steal the heat victory in 2:12.04. Dohrn went a 2:12.90. Defending champion Lauren Zehner from UR won her heat in 2:10.19 with Oxy sophomore Alena Morris (2:15.23) locking up the final spot. A pair of freshmen, Erin MacLean (2:09.97) from CMS and Laura Millet (2:15.23) from CLU earned appearances at finals.
This evening’s events will begin with the conclusion of the mile swim, which took place following the completion of the prelims this morning. After individual events, the meet will conclude with the 400 Free Relay.
Entering the final day of competition, the No. 9 College Swimming Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Division III ranked Athenas of Claremont-Mudd-Scripps look as if though they have all but locked up their eighth consecutive SCIAC title, holding more than a 300 point lead over the next closest team, the University of Redlands. CMS currently has 766.5 points followed by UR with 438. Occidental used a pair of first place finishes and a second place relay swim early on in the evening to pull the race closer, finishing day two with 353.5 points. The fourth spot belongs to Pomona-Pitzer (260.5) followed by Whittier College with 203.5. Cal Lutheran University jumped from eighth to sixth as the University of La Verne (132), and California Institute of Technology (124) round out the field.