CMS Has tight lead in Men's SCIAC Swimming, Holds Big Lead on Women's Side After Day Two
South Gate, Calif. – Claremont-Mudd-Scripps maintained its
lead, thanks to a photo-finish in the 200 medley relay
(five-hundredths of a second), the first of several exciting
finishes, on the second day of the three-day SCIAC Swimming and
Diving Championships at South Gate Pool on Monday evening.
After the second of three days, CMS leads on the men’s side
by just 607-567 over Redlands. On the women’s side, the
Athenas have a more comfortable 750-421 advantage over Redlands.
Pomona-Pitzer is now in third place on both the men’s and
women’s sides.
Despite being in second place in the team race, Redlands
continued to have the top individual stories of the championships,
though. Tyler Harp (San Bernardino, Calif.) continued his storybook
career by winning the 200-yard freestyle in a new SCIAC and meet
record time of 1:38.92, an NCAA “A” cut, while Collin
Gladys broke his own meet records in the 100-yard butterfly (49.25)
and the 100-yard breaststroke (55.64) to earn “A” cuts
in those events.
The hosts from Pomona-Pitzer also had an exciting photo finish go
its way in the women’s 200 freestyle, as sophomore Alex
Lincoln (Palo Alto, Calif.) won her first SCIAC championship by
four-hundredths of a second over Margo Macready (Redlands, Calif.)
of Redlands. Macready led by a quarter of a body length coming into
the final two strokes, but Lincoln out-stretched her to the wall in
1:54.27 to Macready’s 1:54.34. All-American Max Scholten
(Boulder, Colo.) also won the 100-yard backstroke for the hosts,
repeating as champion in the event.
Lincoln’s four-hundredths of a second win for the Sagehens
wasn’t even the closest race of the day as Maddie Lovrensky
(Alto Loma, Calif.) of La Verne won the women’s 100-yard
backstroke in 57:46, just three-hundredths of a second ahead of
Kate Bilotti (Orinda, Calif.) of CMS.
Here are recaps from each of the competitions on the second
day.
Women’s 200 Medley Relay:
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps continued its relay
dominance on the women’s side, winning with an NCAA
“B” cut time of 1:46.57. Elsa Chang
(Cupertino, Calif.), Ching Tung (Hong Kong,
China), Kate Bilotti (Orinda, Calif.) and
Helen Liu (Bellevue, Wash.) made up the winning
team for the Athenas. Pomona-Pitzer held off Occidental for second
place, 1:49.27 to 1:50.13.
Men’s 200 Medley Relay: A photo finish in
the final leg went to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by five-hundredths of
a second in what could prove to be a pivotal fingertip in the team
championship. The Stags came into the day with a six-point lead on
Redlands, and the Bulldogs could’ve pulled into first place
with a win, but came up just short – 1:33.44 to 1:33.49.
Brad Perfect (Engelfield Green, England),
Devin Bowers (McMinnville, Ore.), Blake
Weber (Redwood City, Calif.) and Jordan
Lieberman (Hillsborough, Calif.) made up the winning team
for the Stags. La Verne was in third place at 1:36.00.
Women’s 400 IM: Mimi Harbach (Romeo,
Mich.) of Cal Lutheran earned the title with an NCAA
“B” cut time of 4:35.05. Haley
Thiltgen (San Diego, Calif.) of Redlands came in second
with a time of 4:39.08, while Erin Bartholomew
(Midlothian. Va.) of Whittier came in third in 4:39.36.
Men’s 400 IM: Christopher
Depew (Naperville, Ill.) of Redlands (4:01.98) won a
competitive race that saw the top four finishers all earn NCAA
“B” cuts. Austin Hallett (Bainbridge
Island, Wash.) of CMS came in second (4:03.86), followed by
David Ortyn (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) of Redlands
in 4:04.08 and Tim Storer (Lincoln, Mass.) of CMS
in 4:04.14.
Women’s 100 Butterfly: Michele Kee (Diamond Bar, Calif.) won the race in 56.64, which was a 1-2-3 sweep for Claremont-Mudd-Scripps. Kee and Helen Liu (Bellevue, Wash.), who finished in 57.44, both earned NCAA “B” cuts, while Erin MacLean (Bellevue, Wash.) was third for the Athenas in 58.58.
Men’s 100 Butterfly: Collin Gladys (Yorba Linda, Calif.) of Redlands set a new meet record and an NCAA “A” cut with a 49.25. Jordan Lieberman (Princeton, N.J.) of CMS earned a B cut time in 50.62, as Marc Blumberg (Davis, Calif.)and Patrick Shultz (Los Gatos, Calif.) helped the Stags finish 2-3-4 behind Gladys with time of 50.85 and 51.42, respectively.
Women’s 200 Freestyle: Alex
Lincoln (Palo Alto, Calif.) of Pomona-Pitzer (see above)
won the second-closest race of the day on the final stretch to the
wall to remain undefeated in SCIAC competition in the event this
season. Margo Macready (Redlands, Calif.) of
Redlands led the race for most of the first 199 yards, but came in
a close second at 1:54.31. Maddie Crawford
(Deephaven, Minn.) of CMS came in third place in 156.23.
Men’s 200 Freestyle: Tyler
Harp (San Bernardino, Calif.) of Redlands set a new SCIAC
(regular season and championship) record with a 1:38.92, earning an
automatic qualifier for the NCAA’s. Clint
Freeman (Brentwood, Calif.) of Redlands and
Jeffrey McNerney (Paradise Valley, Ariz.) of CMS
earned “B” cuts with their second and third place
finishes.
Women’s 100 Breaststroke:
Caroline Chang (Lisle, Ill.) of Occidental
came in first with an NCAA “B” cut time of 1:05.60,
beating Emma Jones (Eugene, Ore.) of CMS by more
than a second (1:06.92). Emily Watkins of
Occidental came in third in 1:07.16.
Men’s 100 Breaststroke: Collin Gladys (Yorba
Linda, Calif.) of Redlands earned an automatic “A” cut
to the NCAA Championships with a 55.64 in the morning
preliminaries, breaking his own meet record, and then won the
finals in 55.88. It was his second “A” cut of the
weekend, as he also earned one on Sunday in the 200 individual
medley. Marc Okimura (Honolulu, Hawaii) of La
Verne was second in 57.40, while Vincent Pai
(Walnut, Calif.) of CMS came in third. Steven Van
Deventer (Naperville, Ill.) of Occidental fourth in the
finals with another 57.68, a “B” cut time.
Women’s 100 Backstroke: Maddie
Lovrensky (Alto Loma, Calif.) of La Verne won the closest
race of the day (see above) over Kate Bilotti
(Orinda, Calif.) of CMS by a final of 57:46 to 57:49, both of which
were NCAA “B” cuts. Chandra Lukes
(Escondido, Calif.) of Redlands also earned a “B” cut
and came in third place in 58.02.
Men’s 100 Backstroke: Max Scholten (Boulder,
Colo.) of Pomona-Pitzer defended his title with a 50.77, earning a
“B” cut (although he already had an “A” cut
from earlier this season at the Finis Invitational). Shane
Hunter (West Covina, Calif.) of La Verne finished a close
second in 50.90 to earn a “B” cut, while Jeff
DePew (Naperville, Ill.) of
Redlands earned a “B” cut with a
51.38, as did Jordan Lieberman (Princeton, N.J.)
of CMS with a 51.76.
Women’s 800 Freestyle Relay:
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was pushed in the first
half of the race by Pomona-Pitzer, which put Alex Lincoln (the 200
free individual champion) in the first leg, but the Athenas team of
Emma Jones (Eugene, Ore.), Ellie
Smith (Boulder, Colo.), Maddie Crawford
(Deephaven, Minn.) and Michele Kee (Diamond Bar,
Calif.) pulled away in the second half for a win in 7:43.92.
Redlands overtook Pomona-Pitzer for second place on the anchor leg
7:52.19 to 7:53.14.
Men’s 800 Freestyle Relay:
Redlands capped off its day with a relay win, as a
tight race with CMS was broken open late. Clint
Freeman (Brentwood, Calif.), Eric LoPrete
(Beaverton, Ore.), Christopher Depew (Naperville,
Ill.) and Tyler Harp (San Bernardino, Calif.)
finished in 6:46.52 for an NCAA “B” cut, just shy of
the meet record of 6:46.10. CMS finished in second in 6:51.88,
while Pomona-Pitzer broke the 7-minute mark as well in 6:57.80.
Team scores after the second day are as follows:
Women
CMS
750
Redlands
421
Pomona-Pitzer 338
Occidental
271
Cal Lutheran
235
Whittier
218
Caltech
122
La
Verne
102
Men
CMS
607
Redlands
567
Pomona-Pitzer 278
Cal Lutheran
267
La
Verne
220
Whittier
208
Occidental
174
Caltech
116
The third day of the SCIAC Swimming Championships takes place tomorrow, with events including the 1650-yard freestyle, the 100-yard freestyle, 200-yard races in the butterfly, breaststroke and backstroke, and the finale of the championships, the 400-yard freestyle relay.
