UC San Diego put together several more spectacular performances and cruised to an eighth consecutive title in both the men's and women's divisions as the 2016 Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC) Championships came to a conclusion Monday night at East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium.
The UCSD women topped the leaderboard with 1573.5 points, with Cal State East Bay at a comfortable distance in second (1096.5). The men compiled 1592 points, with UC Santa Cruz (1268) the runner-up for the second year in a row.
The Tritons totaled 12 school records over the four-day competition. Junior Michael Cohn (Solana Beach/Grossmont College) was the PCSC Male Swimmer of the Meet, with Corrie Falcon and Daniel Perdew the women's and men's coaches of the meet.
Colleen Daley, a fourth-year senior and second-time co-captain, completed her goal of breaking the school records in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle. Having gone 22.98 Saturday in preliminaries of the 50, she timed 50.29 in the 100 on Monday morning. The mark got under former Triton great Rosanna Delurgio's 50.56 from 2005, the second-oldest program standard on the women's side besides Delurgio's 100 breaststroke from 2003. The Sacramento native had spoken after UCSD's intrasquad meet back in October that the program marks in the 50 and 100 were posted on her locker and were targets in her final college season. Daley won her second consecutive 100 free by sprinting 50.34 in the final at night, finishing off her sweep of the sprints.
"Colleen Daley is a prime example of consistency and hard work paying off," offered Perdew, the UCSD men's head coach Daniel Perdew. "If you look at her, you don't necessarily think of her as a sub-23 (seconds) sprinter (50 yards) but she's been dedicated, consistent, and absolutely deserves everything she's gotten."
Cohn was a repeat champion in the 200 backstroke, breaking his own school record of 1:45.85 from his first NCAA Championships last March, with a blistering time of 1:44.92. The mark also broke a 16-year-old PCSC mark of 1:46.09, and booked Cohn's return to the NCAA meet as an automatic qualifier.
"(Michael) broke his own school record by almost a full second, on the fourth day of a meet where he had a full load of events," added Perdew. "He was on for every one of his events. The 200 backstroke is his best event. He came in ready and excited, but this has been a year in the making."
Fifth-year senior Dari Watkins was fastest in the 200 butterfly by the narrowest of margins in 2:01.33 over LMU's Hannah Calton in 2:01.35. Speaking of narrowest of margins, her prelim swim of 2:00.07 bested Triton great Alex Henley's school record of 2:00.08, and was an automatic NCAA qualifier.
A fourth school mark on Monday came in the women's 400 free relay, another first-place effort. The Triton foursome was Natalie Tang, Maddy Huttner, Watkins and Daley as the anchor, timing 3:23.10, to also just get under the PCSC standard of 3:23.20. UCSD's previous fastest was 3:23.42 from the 2012 NCAA Championships.
Haley Hamza completed an incredibly difficult triple and thus an enormous conference meet for the sophomore with her third individual title in the grueling mile. The native of Livermore had won the 1000 freestyle and 500 over the first two nights. Monday, she timed a personal-record 17:04.59.
The men went 1-2-3 in the 1650 behind Kyle Nadler (15:48.71), a second-time individual champion after winning the inaugural 1000 two years ago. Juniors Chandler Pourvahidi (15:51.93) and Sasha Mitrushina (15:57.58) were second and third. Stephanie Sin (17:12.83) was second behind Hamza on the women's side.
Sophomore Julia Toronczak (Santee/West Hills HS), like Cohn, repeated in her specialty, the 200 backstroke (1:59.41). Cohn led a 1-2-3 Triton effort ahead of CJ Pais (1:48.61) and Alex Moshensky (1:49.16).
The men's 400 free relay was a final PCSC champion to wrap the meet, in 3:00.71.
Sophomore Kevin Wylder was the top Triton in the men's 100 free, in second in 45.28. His prelim time of 44.57 moved him all the way up in the record book from 12th at the start of the meet, to second, behind only now-mentor Perdew (43.30).
"Eight in a row, it's all about consistency," concluded Perdew. "That's the most important thing in this sport, day to day, and year to year. We've won conference championships through two full recruiting classes.
"This was our meet from the very beginning. We started the first night right with five school records. That set the tone and we carried it through for the rest of the meet."
The Tritons will now await the official announcement in the coming days, of qualifiers for the 2016 NCAA Division II Championships, which will be held for the second successive year in Indianapolis, Ind., March 8-12.
Cal State East Bay
The Cal State East Bay swim team turned in an outstanding performance at East Los Angeles College on Monday in the final session of the 2016 Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference (PCSC) Championships, leaping another spot in the standings to finish in second place with 1096.5 points.
Although the Pioneers don't have a diving team and therefore cannot score diving points, this marks the third time in the last four seasons the Pioneers have placed second at the PCSC Championships.
East Bay added over 300 points on Monday to leap-frog Pepperdine and secure runner-up honors. The No. 2 team in the nation, UC San Diego, claimed its eighth straight title, but the Pioneers managed to beat a pair of Division I team in Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine, as well as Division II rivals Fresno Pacific and Azusa Pacific.
The Pioneers entered the last day of action trailing Pepperdine by 31 points and hanging onto a slim lead over Loyola Marymount. The East Bay swimmers knew they had their work cut out for them to claim the runner-up spot. Senior Rachel Shimizu set the tone for Monday's final session in the opening event, the 1650 free, going head-to-head with LMU's top milers. At 1000 yards she trailed both, but then decided to go "lion-hunting." She chased them down and pulled away with 200 yards to go, and the tidal wave was in motion. Shimizu earned All-Conference honors for her fifth-place finish in the event, and East Bay continued to pull away all evening long.
Assisting Shimizu in the long distance 1650 was junior Kayleigh Davidson, who swam a personal best 17:57.82 to earn 10th place overall. Freshman Jande Monteon and senior Hannah Cutts were 16th and 17th, respectively.
The next event, the 200 backstroke, was East Bay's strongest of the weekend. Newcomer Ryleigh Weight extended her time drops from the morning prelims, swimming to a 10th-place finish. The "A" final was a showcase of East Bay swimmers, with transfer Morgan McClure pacing the Pioneers. She was fourth overall, just ahead of veteran Mariam Lowe (fifth), with her prelim time ranking No. 3 on CSUEB's all time list. Freshman Miranda McDonnell had her first "A" final appearance and finished eighth in the event. All three top-eight finishers captured All-PCSC honors as they helped the team make a big push in the point standings.
The 100 freestyle turned out to be an exceptionally strong event for the Pioneers this season. After hardly scoring a point in the this event during the 2014-15 campaign, the Pioneers showed great improvement at the sprint distance, garnering 87 points Monday evening. Madison Hauanio cemented her status as the Pioneers' highest point scorer of the weekend when she came in fifth place with an NCAA "B" cut of 51.44. The "B" final was rife with East Bay swimmers, as training partners Cassidy Humphrey, Alyssa Littlefield, Vivy Hua, and Clarisse Aguilar were good for 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th, respectively. All four were under the 53-second mark.
Sophomore Claire Beaty continued her re-writing of the East Bay breaststroke records by swimming 2:18.39 in the prelims of the 200 Breaststroke. This is the second time Beaty has broken the 200-yard record this year, having lowered it by over two-and-a-half seconds over the course of the season. In the finals she placed fifth overall, while senior Makila Schuck took eighth to earn her first All-Conference honor in this event.
Next was the 200 butterfly, in which freshman Courtney Nuttall and senior Arolyn Basham touched the wall right next to each other, earning 13th and 14th. Tana Wilson, senior co-captain, scored 24th.
The final event of the championship was the 400 freestyle relay. East Bay's prior display of depth in the 100 freestyle predicted success in this event, and indeed the "A" relay earned third, while the "B" relay was actually right behind with the 4th-fastest time overall. The impressive team of McClure, Humphrey, Alyssa Littlefield, and Hauanio swam 3:27.34, an NCAA "B" cut and currently top 10 in the nation. The "B" relay is currently in the top 20.
The 400 free relay put the exclamation mark an exciting comeback over the course of the last three days of the meet, during which time East Bay displayed depth and tenacity as it steadfastly marched from sixth all the way to second place. Next up, the NCAA Division II Championships take place Mar. 9-12 in Indianapolis, Ind., with selections to be announced the week of Feb. 22.
Fresno Pacific
Fresno Pacific closed out the four-day Pacific Collegiate Swimming and Diving Conference (PCSC) Championships on Monday with three individual titles.
The Sunbirds ended the meet with a third-place finish on the men's side (1,073.5), while the women placed fifth (899). UCSD claimed its eighth straight title in both divisions.
Sophomore Daria Belova was named the women's Swimmer of the Meet after claiming her third individual win and second meet record. She won the 200 breaststroke with a record time of 2:13.55, which is the fastest time in Division II this season. The mark qualifies her for the NCAA Championships next month in the breast and is second quickest all-time at FPU.
Maxim Shcherbakov defended his title in the 200 breaststroke with a winning mark of 1:56.25, which set a new meet and program record for the Sunbirds. The mark also qualifies Shcherbakov for the NCAA Championships and is the quickest time in Division II in 2015-16.
The final victory came from Wesley Coles, who won his third consecutive title in the 200 butterfly with a mark of 1:49.50 for an NCAA B-cut.
The women also received several strong swims that changed the record book at FPU. Bavindeep Basra went 2:04.99 in the 200 butterfly and touched fourth, which lowered her own school record and is an NCAA B-cut. Olga Melnikova placed third in the 200 backstroke with a touch of 2:02.90, which is an NCCA B-cut and second quickest all-time at FPU. Kaylee Cooper went 17:44.64 to place eighth in the 1650 freestyle for fifth quickest in program history.
The Sunbirds wrapped up the meet with a second-place finish in the men's 400 freestyle relay. Austin Hussain (45.65),Luka Barisic (45.60), Blake Hollis (45.97) and Coles (45.06) took silver at 3:02.28 behind UCSD's mark of 3:00.71.
Following the conclusion of the meet, Duston Gragg was tabbed the Diver of the Meet after sweeping victories in the one-meter and three-meter events.
The Sunbirds will now focus their attention to the 2016 NCAA Division II Championships held in Indianapolis, Ind., March 8-12. The NCAA will make an announcement of qualifiers in the coming days.
