A 1-3 finish in the meet’s final event pushed the UC San Diego men’s swimming and diving team past host CSU Bakersfield, while the women went 2-1 against a trio of opponents Saturday at the Hillman Aquatics Complex.
The UCSD women (7-5), ranked sixth in the NCAA Divison II, rolled past No. 12 Alaska, 218-67, as well as Division I foe Loyola Marymount, 219-72, but fell to CSUB, 160-139.
The eighth-ranked UCSD men (2-4) entered the meet-ending 400 freestyle relay down by seven to the ‘Runners (2-4) at 144-137. Needing to win the event and also place a second foursome in either second or third, the Tritons did just that. The ‘A’ relay of senior captains Nicholas Korth and Alex Merrill, followed by junior Jack Galvan and freshman Julian Jacobs, timed 3:05.75, with Jacobs just barely holding off ‘Runner anchor Mitchell Huxhold as CSUB was just .06 seconds behind in 3:05.81.
The work still not done, the Triton ‘B’ foursome of sophomore Michael Leung, freshman Shep Bryan IV, junior Sean Malleyand freshman Chandler Pourvahidi went 3:13.52 to easily outdistance its CSUB counterpart (3:16.26) for third in the race and the team win.
Individually, Korth swept the breaststroke races again, swimming 56.12 to win the 100 by over two seconds and 2:01.35 to take the 200 by more than seven seconds in leading a 1-2-3 Triton sweep with sophomore AJ Zavala (2:08.49) and freshman Zach Yong (2:08.69). Korth also handled the breaststroke leg of the victorious meet-opening 200 medley relay (1:34.52), with Jacobs, Galvan and Merrill leading UCSD to the wall past CSUB (1:34.59). Both relays were decided by less than .10 seconds.
The Triton and Roadrunner men split the 16 events evenly on the afternoon at eight first-place finishes apiece. Remaining UCSD winners were Zach Graves in the 200 fly (1:56.27) ahead of senior Ahiram Rodriguez (1:57.25), fellow sophomoreAlex Moshensky in the 200 back (1:52.55), senior Luke Calkins (298.55) in three-meter diving and Zavala in the 200 IM (1:56.15) in front of senior John Chang (1:56.99).
UCSD women produced the best time in six of 14 swimming races. Senior captain Anji Shakya was tops in a pair of events, the 200 free (1:52.64) and the 200 back (2:05.69), the latter by over a full second. She was also second in the 500 free in 5:01.52.
Freshmen Austine Lee (1:05.43) and Jaimie Bryan (2:23.33) were fastest in the 100 and 200 breast, respectively, with Bryan second (1:06.19) in the 100. Sophomores Colleen Daley (24.19, 50 free) and Naomi Thomas (57.53, 100 fly) were first in their events, with Daley also second in the 100 free (53.17) and Thomas third in the 200 fly (2:08.07).
Senior Erika Rodman (10:33.87) and freshman Sierra Gage (10:41.30) went 2-3 in the 1000 free.
In other women’s action, CSUB beat Alaska (212-76) and LMU (201-92) to sweep the day and improve to 8-2, while LMU (5-3) defeated Alaska (5-7), 163.5-88.5.
UCSD remains in dual-meet road action next weekend, this time traveling to Riverside to take on the Division II nationally-ranked California Baptist Lancers on Saturday, Jan. 18, starting at 12 p.m.
