Swimcloud

UC San Diego Sweeps California Baptist

In swimming and diving dual meets pitting nationally-ranked NCAA Division II rivals, UC San Diego swept California Baptist University, 180-120 on the men’s side and 167-133 on the women’s, Saturday on Senior Day at the Canyonview Aquatic Center.

The UCSD women, ranked No. 4 in Division II, improved to 8-3 in dual meets. The seventh-ranked Triton men concluded their dual-meet schedule at 6-3. The No. 7 Lancer women and No. 16 men each finished their regular seasons with even 2-2 marks.

UCSD student-athletes won nine out of 16 events in both of the men’s and women’s competitions. The Triton women were nursing a tenuous 12-point advantage of 138-126 at the second of two breaks, before a 1-3-4 showing in the 200 individual medley, and 1-2 effort in the 200 free relay for maximum points, secured the victory.

Among several individual highlights for the Tritons was Jack Galvan in his final home meet. The senior co-captain swept the sprint freestyle events, timing a season-best 20.98 in the 50 before going 45.81 in the 100. The Riverside native had started his day by leading a furious come-from-behind victory for the UCSD men in the 400 medley relay. Galvan hit the water as the freestyle anchor leg, trailing the CBU ‘A’ foursome by .57 seconds (2:38.58-2:39.15). He promptly sped 44.94 over his 100 yards, with Lancer anchor Kyler Blake managing just a 47.35, as UCSD ultimately won by nearly two full seconds, 3:24.09-3:25.93.

Galvan finished an incredible day by anchoring the first-place 200 free relay in 1:24.04 behind Cole Heale, Julian Jacobs and Shep Bryan IV. Jacobs, AJ Zavala and Kevin Wylder preceded him in the 400 medley relay.

Junior co-captain Colleen Daley also swept the sprints on the women’s side, taking the 50 (24.01) and 100 (52.50) both in B-cut times, though she had previously posted faster consideration qualifiers in each at the A3 Performance Invitational.

Freshman Stephanie Sin was a third Triton who hit the wall first in a pair of individual events, sweeping the distance freestyle races by timing 10:23.96 in the 1000 and 5:03.83 in the 500.

Sophomore Austine Lee won the 100 breaststroke in a lifetime-best 1:04.04, moving from 12th to 10th on the all-time program list. The mark improved on her existing NCAA consideration qualifier, all the way up from 1:04.96. Lee was also second behind Daley in the 50 free (24.10), with the duo teaming with Angie Phetbenjakul and sophomore anchor Catherine Woo to take first in the meet-ending 200 free relay (1:35.93). Daley’s opening split was an identical 24.01 from her earlier 50.

In taking the 200 individual medley, junior Maddy Huttner achieved her first individual B standard with a season-best time of 2:07.62. Fourth-year seniors Eva Chen (2:10.04) and Megan Lee (2:10.84) went 3-4.

Senior Sean Malley (50.94) and sophomore Julian Jacobs (51.39) led 1-2-3 Triton sweeps for the maximum 16 points in the 100 fly and 100 back, respectively, with Malley ahead of Wylder (52.06) and Samuel Lee (52.09), and Jacobs in front of CJ Pais (53.13), Alex Moshensky (53.94), and in fact, Luke Mitchell (54.81) in fourth. Paul Li(4:41.27) paced a third 1-2-3 finish in the 500 free, with Chandler Pourvahidi (4:41.72) and Howie Chang (4:42.47) trailing the junior co-captain.

Remaining individual event winners for UCSD were Kyle Nadler in the 1000 (9:41.08), Woo in the 200 free (1:54.34), Michael Cohn (Solana Beach/Grossmont College) in the 200 back (1:51.65), and Naomi Thomas in the 100 fly (56.62). Thomas was second earlier in the 200 fly (2:05.30), ahead of senior teammates Dari Watkins(2:07.00) in third and Jessica Norgaard (2:11.12) in fifth.

Fourth-year Triton diver Adam Springer placed second from three meters (288.30) and third from one (263.03). Fellow seniors Natalie Mouzooni and Liz Bird went 3-4 off both springboards for the women.

Pourvahidi was UCSD’s top finisher in the men’s 200 free, placing second in a personal-record 1:41.50, now just .06 seconds off a B cut in the event.

Bird, Chen, Galvan, Megan Lee, Malley, Mouzooni, Norgaard, Springer, Watkins, Jaclyn Amog, and co-captainSummer Bennett were all recognized prior the start. Amog was fourth in the 100 fly (58.04) and Bennett sixth in the 100 free (55.72).

The Triton women have one final dual meet remaining on their schedule, at home against crosstown rival University of San Diego on Saturday, Jan. 31. The action at the Canyonview Aquatic Center begins at 12 p.m. The UCSD men look toward the 2015 Pacific Collegiate Swimming & Diving Conference Championships in La Mirada, Feb. 18-21. The Triton men and women are both six-time defending champions.

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