1. UCLA (1,295)
2. UC Santa Barbara (914.5)
3. Pacific (724.5)
4. San Jose State (688.5)
5. UC San Diego (675.5)
6. Fresno State (617)
7. Cal Poly (616)
8. Hawai’i (608)
9. CSU Bakersfield (395)
10. Loyola Marymount (313)
11. USC (240)
12. Pepperdine (43)
Stanford
Stanford capped an impressive three days in Southern California with another strong finals session on Saturday night at the A3 Performance Invitational.
“We got all we were hoping for from this meet,” said Goldman Family Director of Swimming Ted Knapp. “At this point we have a chance to be better than last year and we continue to build great chemistry and team spirit. The team is in a very good place leading into our conference and championship season.”
Patrick Conaton (1:43.26) got things started with a comfortable win in the 200-yard backstroke. Ryan Arata (1:45:74) and Curtis Ogren (1:46.44) finished second and third, respectively.
Sam Perry (43.21) followed it up with a win in the 100-yard freestyle. He was joined in the finals by Spencer DeShon (44.07) in third and Jeff Garnier in fourth (44.62).
Liam Egan (15:05.31) won the 1,650-yard freestyle with Danny Thomson (15:12.86) not far behind in second place.
Matt Anderson (1:58.42) won the 200-yard breaststroke, while Daniel Le (2:03.68) finished fifth. Christian Brown (2:03.43) also had a strong time in the consolation final.
Gray Umbach (1:44.32) won the 200-yard butterfly, shaving .31 seconds off of his season best. Connor Black (1:44.92) finished second, Jimmy Yoder (1:45.64) third and Andrew Liang (1:48.00) fourth.
DeShon, Garnier, Duggan and Perry (2:55.10) closed the event off in style with a win in the 400-yard freestyle relay. The Cardinal finished the week with 2,016 points, 923 ahead of second place UCSB.
This concludes the Fall season for the Cardinal, which returns to action Jan. 8 when it hosts Pacific at Avery Aquatic Center.
Pepperdine
The Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team closed out the A3 Performance Invitational on Saturday with another strong performance, including a pair of record-setting days.
Jessica Mosbaugh (Los Alamitos, Calif./Los Alamitos HS) swam a 2:17.26 in the 200 breaststroke prelims, which was good for the fourth fastest time in Pepperdine history prior to her final race. She bested that time with a 2:16.01 in the finals for the second fastest 200 breast time in Waves’ history, finishing third overall at the meet. Mosbaugh holds all five of the fastest Pepperdine times in the event and was the top finisher for the Waves on the week.
Allie Carter (San Diego, Calif./Del Norte HS) again had a highlight day, swimming a Pepperdine record 2:04.53 in the 200 butterfly. Carter actually set the record twice on the day, swimming 2:04.57 in the prelims. She finished 13th in the event. The freshman was one of five Waves to qualify for final races after the prelims.
Also qualifying for finals were Megan Henley (Reno, Nev./Galena HS) in the 200 breast, Kathrine Kuhlmann (Liberty, Mo./Liberty HS) in the 200 back and Allison Naasz (Lodi, Calif./Tokay HS) in the 100 free. Naasz scratched her evening swim after putting up a 52.60 early in the day. Kuhlman finished 32nd in the backstroke and Henley finished 32nd as well in the breaststroke.
The Waves set 13 personal bests and 21 season bests on the day.
Kuhlmann set a total of three personal bests on Saturday, setting new marks in the 200 back (2:13.46), 100 back (1:04.49) and 50 back (31.33). Caroline Boone (Lexington, Ky./Baylor School) posted two personal records in the 100 free (53.59) and 50 free (25.59). Joie Eckhard (Sarasota, Fla./The Out-of-Door Academy) set a personal best in the 100 free (55.40), Sabrina Altman (Kula, Hawaii/Seabury Hall) in the 100 free (55.50), Abby Crawford (Weddington, N.C./Weddington HS) in the 100 free (56.06) and Heather Brown (Garden Ridge, Texas/Randolph HS) in the 100 free (58.44). Amanda Rowe (Reno, Nev./McQueen HS) also set two personal bests in the 100 Free (56.52) and 200 fly (2:35.64). Henley and Carter’s times in the 200 breast (2:27.45) and 200 fly (2:04.57) were also personal bests respectively.
The Waves conclude competition for the fall semester with the AT&T Winter Nationals held Dec. 2-5 in Washington.
Pacific
The Tigers left it all in the pool for the final day of the A3 Performance Invitational, winning the 200 Breast prelims and posting impressive times across the board. Overall, the women's team finished in third behind UCLA and UC Santa Barbara with 724.5 total points, while the men put up 508 points.
It was the last meet of the month for the Tigers, who will next compete in the Hoosierland Invitational on December 3-5. The Hoosierland Invitational will feature both the men's and women's teams.
The first event of the day was the 200 Back, which saw Cristina Mardones and Haley Preston finish fifth and sixth in the prelims with times of 2:00.81 and 2:01.38, respectively. Mardones improved on that time in the finals, taking fourth with a finish of 1:59.53. It was the fastest time of the year by a Tiger and just two seconds off the program's all-time record.
For the men, Curtis Klein led the way in the 200 Back with a time of 1:46.35 in the prelims and 1:46.54 in the finals. Each time was good for fourth place in the event and topped the season-best for the Tigers, which was also previously held by Klein.
Vaiva Gimbutyte had a time of 51.85 in the 100 Free to lead the way for the women in the prelims while Stewart Harrison's 45.30 was best for the men. Gimbutyte put up a 51.27 in the finals, setting a new Pacific best this season, while Harrison's 46.07 was the second-best by a Tiger.
Whitney Jorgensen won the prelims in the 200 Breast with a time of 2:16.00, blowing past the Tigers previous best this season. In the finals, Jorgensen took second with a time of 2:15.50, finishing just .05 seconds behind first place.
Cameron Franke was the top swimmer for the men in the 200 Breast, finishing in 2:09.75. Lee Ward and Neil Byers were close behind, with times of 2:11.39 and 2:18.95. In the finals, Ward overtook Franke, besting him with a time of 2:07.62 to Franke's 2:09.42.
In the 200 Fly, Nicholas Nord set a new season-best for Pacific with a finish of 1:51.74 in the prelims and 1:52.58 in the finals. Each of those times were faster than any time in the 200 Fly for Pacific this year, giving Nord the top two spots. Nord also topped the previous best in the 1650 Free with a time of 16:45.02, only to have Jerome Gueguen finish even faster with a time of 16:27.98. For the women, Jana Burkard was fastest, finishing in 17:05.44.
The day ended with a fourth-place finish for Pacific's 400 Free Relay team of Gimbutyte, Kenna Ramey, Jorgensen, and Mardones, who put up a time of 3:25.51. The men's team of Miles MacKenzie, Yahav Shahaff, Harrison, and Klein finished in 3:02.07.
Fresno State
The Fresno State swim team comes home from the A3 Performance Invitational in Los Angeles on Saturday after breaking six school records, swimming 40 personal-best times and a placing sixth overall at the three-day meet.
“This was such a great meet,” eighth year Fresno State head coach Jeanne Fleck said. “We were energetic, we had fun, we broke records; I’m so proud of our swimmers.”
16 of Fresno State’s 19 swimming records have now been set under the leadership of Fleck.
Over the three-day meet, Fresno State junior Esme Gullick set three Bulldog records (200 IM, 100 fly and 200 fly) and freshman Ugne Mazutaityte set three (100 back and 200 back twice). The 100 fly record broken by Gullick was set in the 1993-94 season by Lisa Hadfield.
Fresno State will now send three swimmers to Nationals Dec. 3-5 to attempt to qualify for the Olympics. Senior Leah Hatayama will swim freestyle and senior Brooke Rodriguez will swim breaststroke in hopes of qualifying for the United States and Mazutaityte will swim backstroke in an attempt to qualify for Lithuania.
As the swimmers head to Nationals, Fresno State divers will head to the Georgia Diving Invite Dec. 4-6. The next chance to see the Bulldog swimming and diving team will be at the Fresno State Aquatics Center on Jan. 3 against CSU Bakersfield at noon.
Highlights of the day included Fresno State’s Mazutaityte breaking her own program record twice in the 200 back (1:58.39 in the prelims, 1:57.00 in the finals) and Gullick breaking her own Bulldog record in the prelims in the 200 fly (2:01.78).
Saturday’s program included the 1650 free, 200 back, 100 free, 200 breast, 200 fly and 400 free relay.
Highlights of the Prelims
The Bulldogs swam well in the prelims earlier in the day, highlighted by two Fresno State records, eight personal-best times and 15 swimmers heading into the finals.
In the 200 back, Fresno State’s Mazutaityte finished second to qualify for finals along with sophomore Ally Short and senior Karissa DeRousseau.
In the 100 free, Fresno State’s Hatayama and sophomore Katelin Britton qualified for finals. Sophomore Hannah Nabors (54.13) and freshmen Samantha Giannetta (54.23) and Andrea Tang (56.29) swam personal-best times, but did not qualify for finals.
In the 200 breast, Fresno State’s Rodriguez finished second and swam a personal best 2:16.77, third-fastest in Bulldog history, to qualify for finals along with junior Hailee Baldwin.
In the 200 fly, Gullick, freshmen Gabbie Libang (2:04.11) and Emma Monnich (2:06.32) and junior Kali Conlon (2:08.47) all swam personal-bests while qualifying for finals. Senior Lindsay Ruiz, sophomore Casey Kennemann and juniors Tarryn Rennie and Rachel Rosenthal also qualified for finals in the event.
The Bulldogs finished the invitational in sixth place among the 12-team field with 617 points.
In the 200 back, Mazutaityte finished second and Short (2:07.23) swam a personal-best time and finished 23rd overall.
In the 1650 free, sophomore Vanessa Dugan finished 13th and senior Danielle Powers finished 17th. Freshman Emily Ayers swam the event for the first time with an 18:26.54 and placed 21st.
In the 100 free, Britton (51.82) swam a personal-best and finished 25th.
The invite was hosted by UC San Diego at the ELAC Swim Stadium at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif.
