Swimming their final meet of the 2013-14 regular season, the Tiger swim team took home a handful of event victories en route to a split of action against UC Santa Barbara and Loyola Marymount on Saturday, Jan. 25. For the women, the Tigers defeated LMU, 161-98, while falling to UC Santa Barbara, 156-105. On the men's side, the Gauchos came away with the win, 183-79, over the Tigers. Outside of Pacific, UCSB took the 189-70 win over LMU in women's swimming action.
"I am very, very proud of our performance. This is a meet in which I circle every year with the rivalry we have with (UCSB) and we are making strides and chipping away," said head coach Peter Richardson. "I am proud of the way we fought and the way our seniors performed."
On the women's side of the pool, the Tigers took on a pair of game opponents with both the Gauchos and the Lions swimming at Chris Kjeldsen Pool. Throughout the day, the Tigers and the Gauchos dominated the meet's events as the two teams battled back and forth for control of the pool. In the end, the Gauchos were able to edge out the Tigers in the final few events to take the win. Overall, Pacific's freestyle swimmers were dominant against UCSB and LMU, led by freshman Margaux Verger Gourson. The super frosh took home the win in all three individual events she entered, winning the 200, 500, and 1000 Free throughout the morning. The wins for Verger Gourson pushed her overall total on the year to 13 wins to close out her first regular season with a win in every meet in which she took part in. In addition to Verger Gourson's top performance, Vaiva Gimbutyte, who joined the Tigers at mid-semester, made her presence felt with wins in both the 100 Free and the 100 Fly. Not to be outdone, junior MaryElla Randall won the 50 Free for the women as well as she grabbed the event's top time by touching the wall in a time of 24.10. Randall also won the 50 Free a week prior against UC Davis as she has now won the 50 Free four times for the Tigers on the year.
"It's been a very long time since our women have been super close to UCSB, I think it was 10-12 years ago since I was a swimmer here," said Richardson. "We won a handful of individual events and that is what dual meets are about. It's all about getting up and racing and winning events. Obviously, Margaux has been lights out all year. She won three events. Vaiva, our mid semester addition did a really good job. She won the 100 fly and the 100 Free. Those were really good wins for us and I'm really excited about that. This is a big time rivalry with UCSB and I thought we swam really, really well."
For the men, the meet was singularly focused as the Tigers went head-to-head with the Gauchos. Overall, Pacific's best events came in the backstroke, specifically the 100 Back. Leading the way for the Tigers was junior Cooper Rogers who took the win with a time of 51.90 in front of his parents who were visiting the States all the way from Perth, Western Australia. Rogers took the win over his senior teammate, Oliver Simkovic, who was outtouched by Rogers by just .06 seconds. Simkovic just missed winning the 200 Back as well as he was outtouched by just .30 of a second by UCSB's Josh Smith.
"On the men's side we really competed," said Richardson. "I thought our backstrokers did a fantastic job. We lost some close races but took some close races too. I think that our best swims came from our youngest swimmers so I am really looking forward to what we have in the future. Cooper Rogers winning the 100 Back was a great swim for us and having some of our guys post in-season best times at a dual meet where we are at the very tip of our taper and getting ready for conference championships is impressive."
The Tigers will now prepare for the MPSF Championships which will be held from Feb. 19-22 at East Los Angeles College.
