The UC San Diego men's and women's swimming and diving teams opened their respective 2015-16 seasons with dual-meet victories over Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Saturday at Canyonview Aquatic Center.
The Triton men won by the final score of 203-95, with the women taking a 242-49 decision. UCSD swimmers and divers won 28 of the 32 events contested on the afternoon. The Tritons took maximum points from 1-2-3 or 1-2 placements in 14 of 28 swim events, and 1-2 finishes in three of the four relays.
UCSD wound up with four NCAA provisional qualifying marks, led by two from Stephanie Sin's sweep of the distance freestyle races, the sophomore timing 10:23.05 in the 1000 and later 5:05.87 in the 500. Fifth-year senior Dari Watkins went 2:04.88 for a B cut in the 200 butterfly, and senior captain Cole Heale sprinted 20.80 for a consideration standard in the 50 free.
True freshman Brooke Abrantes (Santee/Santana HS) earned top marks in both diving events on the women's side, falling narrowly shy of an NCAA qualifier (255) with her 248.63 points from one meter. She totaled 244.58 on the three-meter board.
Watkins and Heale joined Sin and Abrantes as winners of a pair of individual events, adding first-place efforts in the 200 free (1:54.26) and 100 free (46.25), respectively. Other double winners were Colleen Daley in the sprints (24.21, 52.90), Julia Toronczak (Santee/West Hills HS) in the 100 (58.38) and 200 backstroke (2:07.73), Zachary Yong in the 200 breaststroke (2:05.62) and 200 individual medley (1:56.48), and freshman Alejandro Ortiz in the distances (9:43.50, 4:42.13).
Remaining individual winners for UCSD were Julian Jacobs (100 back, 50.74), Angie Phetbenjakul (100 breast, 1:06.50), AJ Zavala (100 breast, 58.23), Michael Cohn (200 back, 1:50.93), Jayna Wittenbrink (100 fly, 57.67), Maddy Huttner (200 IM, 2:08.87), and freshmen Lily Maxfield (200 breast, 2:22.32) and Garrett Tse (100 fly, 50.30).
Toronczak, Jaimie Bryan, Wittenbrink and Daley made up the fastest women's 200 medley relay (1:47.68), with Michael Leung, Zavala, Tse and Heale (1:32.51) on the men's side. Daley, Catherine Woo, Reagan Eickert and Huttner were first in the women's 400 free relay in 3:34.67. Samuel Lee, Austin Takeda, Leung and Heale combined to go 3:07.39 in the men's race to conclude the meet.
Sierra Gage made her return to the pool with a fourth-place showing in the 500 free (5:21.23), in her first competitive race since the 2014 NCAA Championships in March of her freshman season. She redshirted with an injury a year ago.
UCSD and NCAA Division III foe CMS were beginning the new campaign against each other for the eighth year in a row. The Tritons remained unbeaten in those matchups with both the Stags and Athenas.
The Triton men's and women's swimmers will travel north to Santa Barbara for dual meets next Saturday, Nov. 7, at Division I rival UC Santa Barbara. The action at Campus Pool is slated for an 11 a.m. start. UCSB does not sponsor diving.
