Fresno Pacific Press Release
FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno Pacific swimming & diving honored its seniors in style on Saturday, as the Sunbirds swept Biola in the last regular season dual meet of the 2016-17 campaign. The men defeated the Eagles 205-48, while the women earned a 182-78 win at Sunnyside Aquatics Center.
Prior to the meet, seniors Matlyn Morris, Royce Martinez and Duston Gragg were honored in their last home meet of their careers.
"We enjoyed being able to honor our seniors today," said head coach Josh Christensen. "Duston, Royce and Matlyn have meant a lot to this program. They will be missed greatly."
Morris highlighted the day on the women's side, bringing home an individual win and two relay victories. The Porterville native won the 200 freestyle with a touch of 1:59.12 and was second in the 50 free at 24.76. In the opening swim of the meet, Morris gave FPU a lead with a 28.54 opening split in the 200 medley relay as the Sunbirds won with a time of 1:49.88. She then closed out the meet as the anchor in the victories 200 free relay (1:39.14) with a split of 24.78.
The Sunbirds also had a strong swim from Olga Melnikova on the day, as the sophomore went a season-best 57.07 in the 100 backstroke for a win. Freshman Mireya Ortega also had a season-best time in the 200 breaststroke (2:29.33) to pick up a victory.
Freshman Paige Le won both the 1-meter (197.32) and the 3-meter (139.65) diving events for FPU.
For the men, Aleksei Averchenko set a school record and did about everything for the Sunbirds on the afternoon. The new top time came in the 200 butterfly at 1:48.25, which is a NCAA B-cut. The freshman bested Wesley Coles' time of 1:48.61. He also won the 200 IM with a touch of 1:53.30 and started the meet off with a 24.02 split in the 200 medley relay to power FPU to a win in the event (1:32.67).
"Aleksei's 200 fly was cool. Considering what he's been doing in training, we pretty much expected that swim. It should qualify him for NCAA's, which is great. Now we can focus on preparing for the meet," noted Christensen.
The Sunbirds also received strong swims from Maxim Shcherbakov, who went 51.54 in the 100 fly, Kyle Jones, who touched with a season-best 1:42.66 in the 200 freestyle, Dmitry Belolipetskiy, who went 46.00 in the 100 free, and Seth Nabors, who touched at 22.09 in the 50 free. All four came away with victories.
Gragg won the two diving events in his last meet with scores of 299.25 in the 1-meter and 314.02 in the 3-meter.
Overall on the day the men took home 15 wins, while the women were victorious 12 times.
"We're only about 10 days out from conference, so we approached the meet in a variety of ways, just depending on individual needs," said Christensen. "Overall, I was really pleased with what I saw. We're right where we need to be."
