Seniors close out home careers for CMS by taking down La Verne
CLAREMONT, Calif. – On Senior Day for 10 members of the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps swimming & diving teams, CMS defeated La Verne in both the women's and men's meet on Jan. 30 at Axelrood Pool. Both the Stags and Athenas are now 7-0 in SCIAC dual-meet competition with one SCIAC meet left (Feb. 6 at Pomona-Pitzer) before the SCIAC Championships.
Against La Verne, the Athenas won 170-58 and won 13 of 14 events along the way. The Stags also picked up a decisive win, 188-43, and won 11 of 14 events. CMS seniors combined to contribute five of the 24 event wins on the day and two seniors swam on the men's 'A' 200 free relay team which set an Axelrood Pool record with a time of 1:24.71, just under the previous record of 1:24.98 set on Jan. 25, 2014.
Zach Alleva (CMC), Joseph Hinton (CMC), Cory Johnson (HMC), Alex Poltash (CMC), McClatchy Ruskin (RDS), Matthew Valentine (HMC), Hannah Bower (CMC), Madison Gebhard (CMC), Maya Kale (CMC) and Bridget Moran (CMC) were the Stags and Athenas who competed in their last home meet Saturday. Poltash and Hinton were the Stags on the record-setting 200 free relay team, along with sophomore Noah Deer (CMC) and junior Matthew Williams (CMC).
On the boards Saturday, three divers came away with NCAA zone qualifying marks. Junior Carli Lessard (HMC) won both the 1 and 3-meter dive events. In the 1-meter event, she scored 257.35, just above the qualifying mark of 255. On the 3-meter boards, her score of 296.10 was a zone qualifier by more than 30 points and also was an Axelrood Pool record. For the Stags, sophomores Victor Ginelli (CMC) and Patrick Quarberg (CMC) each had NCAA qualifying marks on both boards and Ginelli won the 1-meter event with a score of 305.45.
Junior Kelly Ngo (CMC – 400 medley relay, 200 free relay and 200 free) along with freshman Riley Hoffman (CMC – 400 medley relay, 200 back and 200 free relay) and junior Stephanie Doi (CMC – 200 IM, 200 free relay and 100 free) led the Athenas with three event wins each. Lessard, Naomi Ngo (CMC – 400 medley relay and 200 fly) and junior Courtney Chan (CMC – 50 free and 200 free relay) were double winners for the Athenas.
Deer swam in three winning events (400 medley relay, 200 free relay and 200 free) for the Stags as did Poltash (50 free, 100 free and 200 free relay). Freshman Aaron Lutzker (HMC – 400 medley relay and 200 fly), Williams (400 medley relay and 200 free relay) and freshman Jackson Crewe (400 IM and 200 back) were double winners for the Stags.
Next on the schedule for CMS is a meet at Pomona-Pitzer on Feb. 6. Diving begins at 11 a.m. and swim events get underway after that.
By Chris Watts
Director of Athletics Communication
Claremont McKenna College
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