Pepperdine
The Pepperdine swimmers got off to a fast start on day one of the A3 Performance Meet. The annual event, known as one of the faster meets of the year, brought over 15 season-best times out of the Waves, including four personal-record marks.
Pepperdine swam in a field consisting of 14 teams, five of which are listed in the Division I and II rankings.
“The girls were swimming with some of the fastest swimmers in the nation,” said head coach Nick Rodionoff, “and they weren’t intimidated one bit. I’m proud of how everyone really went after it today. They’re a great group and fun to watch.”
Erin Himes (West Chester, Pa./Unionville HS) got things started off right for Pepperdine, lowering her personal-record time in the 500 freestyle to 5:21.68. Her 100 (1:01.49) and 200 (2:06.48) split times also went down as season-best marks.
Heather Connelly (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge HS) followed Himes in the 500 freestyle, finishing the race in 5:24.37. Laura Graziano (Tucson, Ariz./Salpointe Catholic HS) and Blair Kacynski (Superior, Colo./Monarch HS) also clocked season-best times in the event, hitting the wall in 5:25.72 and 5:36.20, respectively.
All four Waves in the 200 IM delivered their best performances of the season. Allison Naasz (Lodi, Calif./Tokay HS) paced Pepperdine with a time of 2:15.37, while Lauren Stigers (Lexington, Ky./Henry Clay HS) followed behind a mark of 2:19.10. Senior Codie Cox (Sonoma, Calif./Maria Carrillo HS/Santa Rosa JC) clocked a 2:20.90, while Katie Giacobbe (Duluth, Ga./Greater Atlanta Christian School) rounded out the season-best swims with a time of 2:37.93
The season and personal-best times continued to drop in the final event of the day, the 50 freestyle. Nicolette Barreiro (Valencia, Calif./Hart HS) was the first Wave to finish, clocking a personal-best time of 25.74. Freshman Rachel Wilt (Wenatchee, Wash./Wenatchee HS) and Sabrina Altman (Kula, Hawaii/Seabury Hall) both turned in sub-26.4 marks.
Amanda Rowe (Reno, Nev./McQueen HS) continues to see her best times fall, after redshirting last season following major surgery. With a time of 26.55, the junior lowered her all-time best mark by over half a second.
Connelly and Cox also set new PRs, with times of 26.22 and 26.36, respectively. Graziano swam her fastest 50 of the season, charting a 25.89.
The A3 Performance Meet continues tomorrow and runs through Saturday.
Fresno State
Fresno State’s swimmers sit in sixth after posting a day one team score of 151 on day one of the A3 Performance Invitational at East Los Angeles College.
“We had a really strong morning session,” Bulldogs head coach Jeanne Fleck said. “I think we might have come out to intense for the finals and that hurt us a little bit, but it was a good learning experience for us to know how we have to prepare.”
Sophomore Esme Gullick had the top finish of the day. She placed fourth in the 200 IM with a time of 2:03.50. Gullick had qualified third with a 2:02.98 in the prelims. Both of those times were less than a second off the school record and her 2:02.98 is good for second-best in school history and a new personal-best.
Kelly Simmons finished eighth in the 500 Free with a time of 5:00.65. Her 4:57.90 in the prelims was just .03 seconds off of her personal-best. Lucy Titchin finished 13th with a time of 5:01.12. She swam a personal-best 5:00.32 in the prelims. In the same event, freshman Casey Kennemann swam her best time as a Bulldog with a 5:01.48 to finish 27th.
Leah Hatayama finished 14th in the 50 Free with a time of 23.61 seconds. She also qualified 14th during the prelims with a season-best time of 23.55 seconds.
UC San Diego
The UC San Diego men’s swimmers are second while the women are seventh after Thursday’s first day of the 2014 A3 Performance Invitational.
UCSD is serving as the host of the three-day meet, the top competition on its fall schedule annually, for the sixth successive year, with East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium the venue for the second straight edition. Swimwear manufacturer A3 Performance is the new title sponsor.
The Triton men totaled 356 points, with UC Santa Barbara in the lead at 498. Among 15 teams on the women’s side, UCSD has 144 points. San Diego State, the 2013 meet champion, leads with 370.
Junior tri-captain Paul Li was the highlight of the night for UCSD, as he shaved over nine seconds off his season best heading into the meet (4:36.60) over the course of the day. The Fullerton product first went 4:30.67 in morning preliminaries to earn the No. 5 seed for the championship final, before timing 4:27.29 at night to touch the wall second only after CSU Bakersfield’s Mitchell Huxhold (4:19.53). Junior teammate Howie Chang was also in that final, in seventh (4:33.07).
Kevin Wylder, a touted true freshman from Granite Bay, impressed in his first collegiate race with his time of 20.57 in 50 free prelims, good for a B cut and the No. 3 seed for finals behind junior teammate Cole Heale (20.31). In the evening session, Heale was again runner-up to UC Santa Barbara’s Wade Allen (19.74) in a season-best 20.28, with Wylder in fourth (20.73).
Colleen Daley was the top performer for the UCSD women in her season debut. The junior co-captain followed up an 11th-place effort in 50 free prelims (23.44) with a third-place finish in the consolation final (23.39) and 11th-place showing overall. Freshman teammate Angie Phetbenjakul was 16th (23.93) following the same race.
Fourth-year senior Eva Chen (14th, 2:16.65) and junior AJ Zavala (sixth, 1:51.96) were the best UCSD finishers in the women’s and men’s 200 individual medley, with both achieving NCAA consideration qualifying times. Zavala got under the standard only in the championship final at night, after his first IM race of the year in prelims.
Freshmen Haley Hamza (4:59.09) and Stephanie Sin (4:59.49) were 19th and 21st, respectively, in the 500. Hamza’s morning swim of 5:00.85 marked her first collegiate B cut, with Sin improving her existing one twice during the day.
The Triton men’s 200 free relay of Heale, Wylder, senior tri-captain Jack Galvan and anchor Shep Bryan IV was third (1:21.40). It was the group’s first B cut of the season with Wylder’s introduction. The women’s top relay of Daley, Phetbenjakul, Austine Lee and Catherine Woo was sixth in a season-best 1:34.14, ahead of the likes of Fresno State, San Jose State and city rival USD.
To conclude Thursday finals, UCSD’s men’s 400 medley relay of Sean Malley, Zavala, Wylder swimming butterfly and Galvan as the freestyle anchor, timed 3:20.15 in its season debut for fourth place and a B cut. The women’s foursome of Julia Toronczak (Santee/West Hills HS), Chen, Naomi Thomas and Daley was seventh in 3:48.02, also comfortably a consideration qualifier in its first competitive appearance of 2014-15.
Powerhouse USC, which only entered relays into the meet, swept all four events on the first night.
