The Fresno Pacific men's and women's swimming & diving programs jumped back into action on Saturday, as the Sunbirds faced off in dual meets with California Baptist, Concordia and Azusa Pacific (women only). FPU earned wins over Concordia and APU, but fell to host CBU at the Lancer Aquatics Center.
"Overall we had a fairly solid day," said head coach Josh Christensen. "We still have some phases where we need to get better at stepping up and racing, but this meet was a good way to kick of the January dual meets and continue to prepare for conference in February."
Maxim Shcherbakov and Wesley Coles led the men on the day with four individual victories.
Shcherbakov continued his dominance in the breaststroke events with a win in the 100 with a touch of 57.35 and a victory in the 200 at 2:04.73. Newcomer Matheus Misquito followed in second in the 100 at 1:00.09 and in third in the 200 with a time of 2:17.16 to give FPU one of the best one-two punches in the nation in the breaststroke events.
Coles won the 200 butterfly (1:52.72) and the 500 free (4:41.33), and was just out-touched to place second in the 100 butterfly (52.15).
Luka Barisic also provided FPU with a win the 50 free with a time of 21.59.
The Sunbirds also received multiple second-place finishes throughout the day. Zack Johnston was second in the 1000 free at 10:18.66, Austin Hussain placed second in the 200 free at 1:45.78, Barisic touched second in the 100 backstroke at 53.13 and Kyle Jones placed second in the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:59.31.
For the relay's, the 200 medley team of Barisic, Shcherbakov, Coles and Hussain won (1:34.49), while Barisic, Blake Hollis, Hussain and Jones placed second in the 400 freestyle relay (3:15.70).
On the boards, Duston Gragg placed second in the 1-meter diving event with 266.15 points and second in the 3-meter event with 294.70 points.
The Sunbirds defeated Concordia 209-60 and fell to CBU 177-121.
The women were paced by Daria Belova, Samantha Woo and Bavindeep Basra, as each earned a win on the day. Belova was victorious in the 100 butterfly at 57.40, Woo won the 100 freestyle at 53.82 and Basra touched first in the 200 IM at 2:10.70.
Belova was also second in the 200 breaststroke at 2:25.67, while Basra finished second in the 200 butterfly at 2:11.46.
The Sunbirds were also strong in the relay events, as Olga Melnikova, Belova, Madison McGinnis and Woo were just out-touched in the 200 medley relay (1:48.89) to finish second in the first event of the day. Woo, Melnikova, McGinnis and Olivia Hynes then wrapped up the meet with a second-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay (3:40.58).
FPU defeated CUI 181-75 and APU 184-101, but fell to CBU 216-78.
The Sunbirds continue action on Friday, Jan. 22 as the women take on Cal State East Bay at 1 p.m. in Hayward.
