Day 3 of SCIAC Championships ends with Athenas and Stags still leading
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men's and women's swim & dive teams increased their respective leads with several more conference championship winning swims at the 2015 SCIAC Championships hosted by Cal Lutheran at Whittier College's Lillian Slade Aquatics Center on Feb. 21. All told, CMS won seven of the 12 events during the championship finals with the Athenas bringing home four conference championships and the Stags winning three.
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).
On the boards, the women's 3-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 1-meter competition on Thursday. Read more about the diving finals here.
The women's 100-yard butterfly finals field included four Athenas. 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 on Friday. Sophomore teammate Stephanie Doi locked up the second spot after hitting the wall in 56.85. Both Gwo and Doi swam faster than their morning preliminary times.
Stags swept the podium in the men's 100 fly on Saturday night. During prelims, CMS senior Patrick Shultz matched his own meet record of 49.10 that he set last season. Then in finals, he swam even faster to earn a SCIAC, CMS and meet record time of 48.74. The previous record (48.91) was set in 1998 by CMS' Gary Simon. Matthew Williams and Marc Blumberg were right behind Shultz with times of 49.11 and 50.13, respectively.
In the women's 200 free, Natalie Green finished second in 1:53.81 for CMS while senior teammate LillyBelle Deer was third after clocking a 1:55.06.
In the men's 200 free championship final, senior Cameron Whiting came in second in 1:39.35 and teammate, junior Alex Poltash, took the third podium spot with a time of 1:40.95. Whiting's time bested his previous school record set in 2013.
One of the closest finishes of the day came in the women's 100-yard 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).
The next final featured the men's 100-yard breaststroke and CMS junior Zach Alleva finished in third in 56.27 in an event that saw the meet record fall to the first place finisher.
In the women's 100-yard backstroke, Kelly Ngo finished in second and swam what would have been a meet record time of 55.66, but La Verne's Maddie Lovrensky swam just a bit faster, finishing in 55.59. Nevertheless, Ngo swam a NCAA 'B' cut time and set a CMS record.
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 with an NCAA 'B' cut time.
Another exciting relay finished off the day of competition on the women's side. The top seeding held true with CMS, winning the 400-yard 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.
Concluding the third day of competition was the men's 400-yard medley relay, which belonged to the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps quartet of Williams, Alleva, Shultz and Poltash as they finished in 3:18.96.
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
SCIAC Championships Central: 2015 SCIAC Championships
SCIAC Championships Twitter: https://twitter.com/2015SCIACchamps
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