WHITTIER, Calif. - The 2015 edition of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming & Diving Championships got underway at the Lillian Slade Aquatics Center on the campus of Whittier College today with two relays and women's one-meter diving.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps jumped out to an early team lead on both sides. For the women, CMS (176) paces the field, followed by Redlands (146), Pomona-Pitzer (129), Whittier (109), Chapman (104), Occidental (90), La Verne (88), Cal Lutheran (30) and Caltech (29).
For the men, CMS leads the team standings with a tally of 120, with Pomona-Pitzer (116), Redlands (93), Occidental (91), Whittier (82), Cal Lutheran (78), Chapman (64), Caltech (60) and La Verne (38) following in the standings.
To begin swimming events for the weekend, the CMS women took the 200 Medley Relay as the team of Kelly Ngo, Stephanie Doi, Lorea Gwo and LillyBelle Deer swam their way to an NCAA 'B' cut with a time of 1:44.44 and will be under consideration to swim at Division III Nationals. The La Verne quartet of Maddie Lovrensky, Jacqui Rojas, Krislyn Cha and Melanie Consiglio were five hundredths of a second off the cut with a time of 1:46.05 and rounding out the podium stand was the Pomona-Pitzer team of Jacqueline Tran, Hannah Robertson, Maki Tohmon and Cayla Nishizaki that hit the wall in 1:46.29.
The men's 200 Medley Relay saw four teams reach NCAA 'B' cut standards and each team will be considered for National qualifications. Leading the way was the CMS group of Matthew Williams, Zach Alleva, Patrick Schultz and Joe Hinton that combined for a SCIAC Meet Record time of 1:30.59. The Pomona-Pitzer team of Daniel To, Kyle Dalrymple, Daniel Villars and Huge Berryman clocked a 1:31.40 for second while Occidental and Redlands tied for third with times of 1:32.70. Oxy's team was comprised of Matt Weiser, Steven Van Deventer, Alex Najarian and Will Westwater and the Bulldogs' group was made up of Will Tyrrell, Harlan Long, Jeff Depew and Eric Loprete.
On the women's one-meter diving board, Maia Presti and Carli Lessard went 1-2 for the Athenas as each broke the SCIAC record set a year ago. Representing Redlands, Jess Kolsky took third. A complete release on the diving event can be found here.
Back between the lanes, the women's 800 Free Relay went to the Pomona-Pitzer team of Tohman, Vee Vanderpoel, Kelsey Thomas and Vicky Gyorffy in a meet record time of 7:37.57. Second place went to the CMS quartet of Molly Loftus, Lauren Rosenberger, Natalie Green and Deer with a combined 7:41.73 as both relays earned NCAA 'B' cuts and thus consideration to swim at NCAA Championships. The third spot went to Whittier's group of Karly Carazo, Kimberley Hallsted, Kiersten Shew and Kayla Heiss in 7:48.49 to round out the top three.
The final race of the day featured the men's 800 Free Relay, which Graham Spurzem, Alex Poltash, Marc Blumberg and Cameron Whiting of the Stags stole with a swim of 6:44.21 to earn NCAA consideration. The Pomona-Pitzer and Cal Lutheran teams battled throughout the race and rounded out the podium awards. The Sagehens' team of Spencer Satz, Kevin Byrne, Villarsand Mark Hallman went a 6:50.69, just 46 tenths of a second off a qualifying time and the CLU quartet of Ore Wahnishe, Zach Zamecki, Jonah Hobbs and Zach Loza set a school record with a time of 6:53.61.
On Friday, Feb. 20, preliminary swimming events will begin at 9:00 a.m. with finals following in the afternoon.
Results: Day One
Tournament Central: 2015 SCIAC Championships
CLU Twitter: https://twitter.com/2015SCIACchamps
