WHITTIER, Calif. - The third day of the 2015 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming & Diving Championships hosted by Cal Lutheran at Whittier College was one for the record books as more than half of the teams competing had at least one school record broken today.
The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's and women's teams increased their respective leads with more victories.
For the women, the first four teams were unchanged with CMS (796) leading Pomona-Pitzer (735), Redlands (520) and Whittier (300). Occidental (285) moved ahead of La Verne (274). The final three teams also remain where they entered the day with Chapman (231), Cal Lutheran (111) and Caltech (89) rounding out the women's teams.
For the men, CMS (787.5) and Pomona-Pitzer (552) remained the top two teams. Redlands (356) jumped Cal Lutheran (355) by a single point and Occidental (323) moved ahead of Whittier (295.5). La Verne (186) also moved ahead of Chapman (170) and Caltech (160).
During the morning session a combined 19 men's and women's NCAA 'B' cuts were achieved and school records fell left and right. A pair of Meet records was also set with one for the men and another for the women. Swimming in his home pool, Whittier junior Tony Martir clocked a 100 Breast time of 55.30, five hundredths of a second faster than the previous mark while Maddie Lovrensky lowered her own 100 Backstroke SCIAC and Meet record to 55.49.
On the boards, the women's three-meter finals featured a title for Carli Lessard who became a two-time All-SCIAC recipient this year after scoring a 441.20 today and placing second in the one-meter competition on Thursday. Read more about the diving finals here.
Swimming finals got underway with the women's 400 Individual Medley, which went to Pomona-Pitzer freshman Vee Vanderpoel for the first individual SCIAC title of her career. She clocked a 4:33.68 in prelims to enter as the top seed and maintained that position to win in 4:34.44. Second to the wall was Redlands sophomore Ellie Jaques who also hauls in her second solo All-SCIAC award after recording at time of 4:35.66. The final spot on the podium went to Pomona-Pitzer senior Gailyn Portelance as she dropped time from her morning swim to hit the wall in 4:37.27.
In the men's 400 IM, Jeff Depew pulled away from the field during the breaststroke and cruised to another SCIAC title as the only sub-four minute swimmer of the day as he notched a time of 3:57.72 in his final SCIAC appearance in the event. Samuel To (PP) shaved more than eight seconds off his prelims time to move into second place after going a 4:03.65 in his first conference appearance in the 400 IM. Cal Lutheran senior transfer Jonathan Hall was 17 tenths of a second back in 4:03.82 to place third and earn his first All-SCIAC recognition.
The women's 100 Butterfly finals field was made up of four Athenas, four Sagehens and a Bulldog with no one older than a junior on the blocks for the starting gun. Winning the race in 56.42 was CMS freshman Lorea Gwo who returned to the podium for her first career victory after earning All-SCIAC yesterday. Sophomore teammate Stephanie Doi locked up the second spot after hitting the wall in 56.85 and Pomona-Pitzer's Maki Tohmon took third in 57.303 as all three swam faster in the final heat than in preliminaries this morning.
Stags swept the podium in the men's 100 fly tonight. During prelims, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps senior Patrick Shultz matched his own Meet record of 49.10 that he set last season and in finals he went even faster to win in a SCIAC and Meet record time of 48.74. Matthew Williams and Marc Blumberg were right behind in 49.11 and 50.13, respectively.
The women's 200 free champion came from Pomona-Pitzer by way of Vicky Gyorffy in 1:53.77. Natalie Green, a sophomore from CMS, was second in 1:53.81 and senior LillyBelle Deer (CMS) was third after clocking a 1:55.06.
In his first men's 200 free championship final, PP freshman Mark Hallman prevailed over CMS senior Cameron Whiting. Not only did he win the first SCIAC title of his career in the event, but he did so in Meet Record setting fashion with a time of 1:38.81. Whiting pulled up second in 1:39.35 and junior Stags teammate Alex Poltash used a 1:40.95 to take the third podium spot.
One of the closest finishes of the day came in the women's 100 Breaststroke as the top three finishers all hit the wall within 72 hundredths of a second of one another. The fastest race came from CMS sophomore Emily McKinnon (1:05.04) with Occidental senior Emily Watkins (1:05.59) placing second and Jacques garnering her third overall All-SCIAC recognition in her second championship final of the evening in 1:05.76.
The next final featured the men's 100 breast, which produced another Meet and SCIAC record by way of Occidental senior Steven Van Deventer who overtook top-seeded Martir in a time of 54.71 while Martit clocked a 55.18. A touch back in third was CMS junior Zach Alleva in 56.27 as all three men lowered their times from prelims.
Rounding out the individual events tonight was the 100 Backstroke. For the women, Lovrensky defended her title with a swim of 55.59, followed by sophomores Kelly Ngo (CMS) and Rachel Haney (UR) in 55.66 and 58.56, respectively, to round out the All-SCIAC honorees.
On the men's side, the 100 back belonged to sophomores. Williams (CMS) finished under 50 seconds with a clocking of 49.51 to earn his second trip to the podium tonight. Second was Daniel To from Pomona-Pitzer in 50.58 and Will Tyrrell represented the Bulldogs after going a 50.90. All three hit NCAA 'B' cuts in the race.
Another exciting relay finished off the day of competition. The top seeding held true with CMS, winning the 400 Medley Relay, with La Verne edging Pomona-Pitzer to swap seed spots for second and third, respectively. The Athenas group was comprised of Ngo, McKinnon, Gwo and Deer and they teamed up for a time of 3:51.81. Representing the Leopards were Lovrensky, Jacqui Rojas, Krislyn Cha and Melanie Consiglio who combined for a second place swim of 3:54.73. For the Sagehens, Alex Seidel, Hannah Robertson, Tohmon and Gyorffy joined up for a relay finish of 3:54.86.
Concluding the third day of competition was the men's 400 MR, which belonged to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps quartet of Williams, Zach Alleva, Shultz and Poltash as they went a 3:18.96. The second fastest time came from the four Pomona-Pitzer swimmers, including D. To, Kyle Dalrymple, S. To and Hallman in 3:21.74. The third team home was from Occidental as Matt Weiser, Van Deventer, Austin Lashley and Alex Najarian teamed up for a time of 3:26.21.
Additionally, the men's one-meter diving preliminaries took place during the break in swimming action and five student-athletes earned NCAA Regional qualifying marks, led by CMS senior James Stevick with a score of 628.60.
Competition at the 2015 SCIAC Championships will conclude on Sunday, Feb. 22 with preliminary swims in the morning at 9:00 a.m. followed by championship heats at 5:00 p.m. Prior to finals the senior class will be recognized at 4:45 p.m.
Results: Day Three
Tournament Central: 2015 SCIAC Championships
SCIAC Twitter: https://twitter.com/2015SCIACchamps