CMS Sweeps SCIAC Mens and Womens Swim Championships
South Gate, Calif. – Claremont-Mudd-Scripps held off a
tough challenge from Redlands 879-812 to capture the SCIAC
Men’s Swimming and Diving Championship on Tuesday evening at
South Gate Pool. The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Athenas also
captured the women’s side of the event by a more substantial
1075.5 to 567 margin over second-place Redlands.
CMS also swept the official SCIAC championship, which combines
regular season meet results and performances in the SCIAC
Championships. Redlands and Pomona-Pitzer tied for second on the
women’s side, while Redlands was second and Pomona-Pitzer
third on the men’s.
Michele Kee (Diamond Bar, Calif.) of CMS won the SCIAC
Women’s Swimmer of the Year award after sweeping all of her
events (individual and relay), while Tyler Harp (San Bernardino,
Calif.) earned the honor on the men’s side after completing a
50-100-200 freestyle sweep for the second year in a row. Redlands
actually won 12 swimming events, compared to five for CMS, but the
Stags depth proved to be the difference.
The competitiveness between the CMS and Redlands men was epitomized
in the last individual event of the event, the 200-meter butterfly.
David Ortyn of Redlands finished first in 1:51.05, teammates
Christopher Depew (Naperville, Ill.) was second in 1:51.07 and Marc
Blumberg (Davis, Calif.) of CMS was third in 1:51.11, as the top
three finishers were separated by just six-hundredths of a second.
Jordan Lieberman (Princeton, N.J.) of CMS was also fourth in
1:51.43, a “distant” .36 off the lead, which broke his
own meet record set last year.
Adding to the list of photo finishes was another nail-biting
victory for sophomore Alex Lincoln (Palo Alto, Calif.) of host
Pomona-Pitzer, who edged out Chandra Lukes (Escondido, Calif.) of
Redlands by five-hundredths of a second in the 100-yard freestyle.
Yesterday, Lincoln won by just four-hundredths of a second in the
200-yard freestyle over Margo Macready (Redlands, Calif.) of
Redlands, and in both races, she trailed until the final stroke
when she barely reached the wall first. Lincoln was undefeated in
both the 100 and the 200 against SCIAC competition this year.
Here are recaps from each of the competitions on the final day of
the SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships:
Women’s 1650 Freestyle: Erin
Bartholomew (Midlothian. Va.) of Whittier had an easy win
in the first event of the day, as she won by 15 seconds with a
final time of 17:27.89 to defend her championships. Whitney
Dawson (Portland, Ore.) of CMS was second in 17:42.90, and
Mimi Harbach (Romeo, Mich.) of Cal Lutheran came
in third.
Men’s 1650 Freestyle: Brett Berger (Lincoln, Calif.) of CMS challenged the meet record for the first half of the race, before settling for a win of over 10 seconds in 16:04.30. David Sekula (La Grange, Ill.) of Redlands was second and also earned a “B” cut time in 16:15.11. Patrick Wall (Ladue, Mo.) of Redlands was third.
Women’s 200 Backstroke: Maddie Lovrensky
(Alto Loma, Calif.) of La Verne won her second backstroke event of
the weekend with an NCAA “B” cut time of 2:06.01, after
winning the 100 back yesterday. Ali Fisher
(Bellingham, Wash.) of CMS was second with a time of 2:07.81, and
Elsa Cheng (Cupertino, Calif.) of CMS was third in
2:08.16.
Men’s 200 Backstroke: Jeff DePew
(Naperville, Ill.) of Redlands had a furious rally in the final 50
yards to jump from third to first and capture the race in 1:49.66.
Max Scholten (Boulder, Colo.) of Pomona-Pitzer,
the defending champion in the event, was second in 1:50.25 and
Shane Hurter (West Covina, Calif.) of La Verne was
third, all three of which were NCAA “B” cut times.
Scholten and Hurter were neck-and-neck against the ropes in the
fourth and fifth lanes, but DePew came flying up the outside of the
sixth lane from a second behind with 50 yards to go to overtake
both.
Women’s 100 Freestyle:
Alex Lincoln (Palo Alto, Calif.) of Pomona-Pitzer
had a terrific case of déjà vu as she won a photo
finish for the second day in a row (see above). Lincoln edged out
Chandra Lukes (Escondido, Calif.) of Redlands this
time by a margin of 52.21 to 52.26, as both earned NCAA
“B” cuts. Emma Jones (Eugene,
Ore.) of CMS came in third.
Men’s 100 Freestyle: Tyler
Harp (San Bernardino, Calif.) of Redlands completed the
50-100-200 sweep in the freestyle for the second year in a row,
winning with a time of 45.14. Devin Bowers
(Sterling, Va.) of CMS was second in 46.00 flat to make the
“B” cut by four-hundredths of a second, while
Clint Freeman (Brentwood, Calif.) of Redlands
finished a close third in 46.13.
Women’s 200 Breaststroke:
Caroline Chang (Lisle, Ill.) of Occidental
earned a lopsided win by a quarter-pool length, touching the wall
in a time of 2:20.27, an NCAA “B” cut.
Ching Tung (Hong Kong, China) of CMS came in
second place, while McKenzie Nakamura (Kenmore,
Wash.) of Redlands was third.
Men’s 200 Breaststroke:
Vincent Pai (Walnut, Calif.) of CMS earned an NCAA
“B” cut time with a strong finish as he pulled away
from a tight pack and won in 2:02.70. Steven Van
Deventer (Naperville, Ill.) of Occidental was second in
2:03.70, which was also a “B” cut time, while
Brad Perfect (San Ramon, Calif.) of CMS came in
third place to help the Stags pick up extra points to seal the team
competition.
Women’s 200 Butterfly: Michele
Kee (Diamond Bar, Calif.) of CMS took another lopsided win
by finishing with a “B” cut time of 2:04.90.
Evelyn Beguiristain (Paradise Valley, Ariz.) of
Whittier came in second place almost six seconds back in 2:10.36,
while Erin MacLean (Bellevue, Wash.) of CMS was
third in 2:11.00.
Men’s 200 Butterfly: The most exciting race of the day saw half of the competitors in the pool break the old meet record (see above). David Ortyn (Bainbridge Island, Wash.) of Redlands ended up winning by a millimeter over teammate Christopher Depew (Naperville, Ill.) of Redlands 1:51.05 to 1:51.07, while Marc Blumberg (Davis, Calif.) of CMS was just six-hundredths of a second away from winning in 1:51.11. Jordan Lieberman (Princeton, N.J.) of CMS finished in 1:51.43, which was enough to break his old meet record of 1:51.94, set last year, but only good enough for fourth in the race.
Women’s 400 Freestyle Relay: The first half of the race saw Pomona-Pitzer challenge the favorites from CMS, but the Athenas team of Emma Jones (Eugene, ore.), Helen Liu (Bellevue, Wash.), Ellie Smith (Boulder, Colo.) and Michele Kee (Diamond Bar, Calif.) pulled away in the second half to win in 3:31.41. The Sagehens had to hold off Redlands for second place in a tight finish, which saw Alex Lincoln (See above) touch the wall just .15 ahead of Redlands (3:34.72 to 3:34.87), the third time over the weekend that she edged out a Bulldog by .15 or less.
Men’s 400 Freestyle Relay:
Redlands capped off a weekend which saw it
dominate the list of champions by winning the final relay in
3:03.11. The Bulldogs first three legs of Clint
Freeman (Brentwood, Calif.), Christopher
Depew (Naperville, Ill.), and Collin
Gladys (Yorba Linda, Calif.) gave Tyler
Harp (San Bernardino, Calif.) a one second lead heading
into the final leg, which was more than enough for the fastest
swimmer of the event. CMS was second in 3:05.48, while
Pomona-Pitzer was third in 3:07.83
Final team scores of the championship are as follows:
Women
CMS
1075.5
Redlands
567
Pomona-Pitzer 519.5
Occidental
368
Cal Lutheran
333
Whittier
297
Caltech
157
La
Verne
151
Men
CMS
879
Redlands
812
Pomona-Pitzer 399
Cal Lutheran
332
Whittier
311
La
Verne
299
Occidental
254
Caltech
140
