THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — The Cal Lutheran Kingsmen head to the Brenda Villa Aquatic Center in Commerce, California, tomorrow, to kick off the 2019 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming and Diving Championships.
In addition to determining individual conference event champions, the scores from the four-day event are combined with the results from the team's previous conference duals to determine the 2018-19 conference championship team of the year. The Kingsmen enter the championships in third (5-2), behind Pomona-Pitzer (8-0) and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (7-1).
Individually, junior Ben Brewer and sophomore Stephen Blaauw lead the team in distance races. Brewer took first in the 500-free in every conference dual this season, except in the tri-meet versus Whittier and Redlands when he fell to teammate Blaauw. He additionally claimed first in every 1000-free and 1650-free SCIAC matchup this year. The two enter the weekend at second and third on the conference's top times list in the 1650-free at 15:58.25 and 16:11.13, respectively.
Joining the watch list include 200-medley relay team members freshman Miles Gaitan, freshman Nathan March and sophomore Andreas Nybo. Though the fourth spot has rotated throughout the season, the Kingsmen have taken home the gold in three of their races together.
Separately, Nybo has dominated the 100- and 200-butterfly, finishing first in the 100- in all but one SCIAC meet. Gaitan holds down the backstroke races for the Kingsmen while March locks in on the breaststroke sprints.
Other names to keep an eye on include junior Liam McCallum and sophomore Nick Kenny on freestyle sprints, junior Thomas Hamburger in the butterfly, and freshman Vincent Hemingway in the breaststroke.
Races begin on Thursday, February 21, opening with the 200-medley relay finals and extend to Sunday, February 24. For more information and the full schedule, head to TheSCIAC.org.
SCIAC Championships Info: 2019 SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships
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Release by Christy Effendie, Assistant Sports Information Director
