The UC San Diego men's and women's swimming and diving teams each moved one step closer to a fifth consecutive league title Friday on day three of the 2013 Pacific Collegiate Swimming & Diving Conference (PCSC) Championships. The four-day meet wraps up on Saturday at the Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatic Center.
Through 14 of 20 events, the fourth-ranked Triton men have accumulated 1106.5, continuing to lead Cal Baptist (934) and Fresno Pacific (734). The No. 3 UCSD women are also atop their respective standings with six finals to go.
Adam Rice started things off for UCSD by completing his sweep of the individual medley events in defending his conference title in the 400 from a year ago, timing 3:57.67 to narrowly fall short of the meet record of 3:57.12. Rice, who was also fastest in morning prelims, was the only swimmer to go under four minutes all day.
The Triton men's 400 medley relay of Julius Espiritu, Nicholas Korth, Adam Yen and Alex Merrill put a capper on the evening in a first-place, meet-record time of 3:17.20, lowering a 13-year-old mark set at 3:17.83 by Hawai'i in 2000.
In between, junior co-captain Anji Shakya continued her incredible meet for the UCSD women, setting her second meet and school record by winning her third consecutive conference championship in the 200 free. Her time of 1:48.24 barely bested Triton legend Alex Henley’s 1:48.27 from a year ago. She had achieved the identical trifecta of three-peat, meet and school mark in the 500 on Thursday night.
"Anji (Shakya) is just lighting up the pool," said Triton co-head coach Corrie Falcon. "Every time she swims, she's breaking records.
Senior diver Tyler Runsten pulled off the career quadruple on the three-meter springboard, adding a fourth consecutive PCSC championship on the taller apparatus after winning his first one-meter title on Wednesday night. He scored 339.30 in finals Saturday, with junior Luke Calkins (288.45) in second.
Senior Adam Yen, like Rice in the 400 IM just before, defended his 2012 PCSC crown in the 100 fly, swimming 49.09 to out-touch Cal Baptist's Nolan Brown (49.20) after turning in the fastest prelim mark. Triton sophomore Dane Stassi was third (49.54).
Freshman Kyle Nadler was third in the 400 IM in 4:01.08, with senior teammate Jeremy Smith, Thursday's 500 champion, behind him in fourth (4:01.30).
Freshmen Paul Li (1:40.63) and Howie Chang (1:41.57) placed second and fifth, respectively, in the 200 free.
"We had an incredible evening with most of our team getting best times," concluded Falcon. "It's especially gratifying to see seniors like Paul Guzman and Mark Guyler who have been working hard for years, make substantial time drops, and someone like Casey Adams put herself in position to potentially make the NCAA field."
The 2013 PCSC Championships wind down with two sessions on Saturday, Feb. 16. Morning preliminaries get under way at 9 a.m., with evening finals following at 4 p.m. with the program featuring the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast and 200 fly with Korth and Stassi, respectively, and ending with the 400 free relay.
