HOME OF BULLDOG SWIMMING & DIVING - 11 SCIAC Championships

The University of Redlands swimming & diving teams suffered tough losses to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday at the Thompson Aquatic Center in the season’s dual meet finale.

The Athenas, the defending Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) champions, downed the Bulldog women by a 158-84 score.

Both diving events provided senior Jenna Lyons (Whittier, CA) an opportunity to score first-place points as she nabbed the top spot in both the 1-meter (200.50) and the 3-meter (190.00).

Sophomore Kat McIntosh (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) edged Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Jenni Rinker in the 50 freestyle, capturing first with a 25.01 time.

A strong breaststroke leg enabled freshman McKenzie Nakamura (Kenmore, WA) to cruise to victory in the 200 individual medley as she stopped the clock at 2:12.93.

Second-place finishers for the Bulldogs included freshman Jaime Nippert (Gresham, OR) in the 100 freestyle (56.75) and Nakamura in the 200 breaststroke (2:29.23).

For the first time since 2000, the men dropped a conference dual meet as the Maroon and Gray lost a hard-fought battle to the Stags, 114-129.

Sophomore Alec Alders (Los Angeles, CA) dazzled in each of the distance freestyle events, offering up first-place points for the team by winning the 1650 freestyle (17:01.08) and the 500 freestyle (4:52.56). Alders enters the SCIAC Championships as the defending champion in each and has not lost either event in a conference dual meet this season.

In the 50 freestyle, sophomore Miran Terzic (Mostar, Bosna i Hercegovina) proved once again to be the fastest man in the pool, completing the two-lap splash and dash in 21.15, which earned him an NCAA “B” qualifying time. He then led a one-two finish in the 100 freestyle later on in the meet, covering the sprint in 47.06.

A close race ensued in the 200 freestyle as freshman Tyler Harp (San Bernardino, CA) battled Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Jeff McNerney, and the star freestyle talent bested McNerney on each 50 to win in 1:44.84.

An epic battle occurred in the final event of the meet, the 400 freestyle relay, as Redlands’ contingent slighted the Stags’ foursome by .44 seconds. Harp led off the relay with a swift 47.55, beating Austin Hallett by just less than a second. Senior Buddy Olds (Murrieta, CA) split a 47.55 to give the squad a 1.5-second lead heading into the third leg while freshman Steven Zarian (Superior, CO) fired off a solid 48.76 split while handing the anchor leg off to Terzic. Faced with a small deficit, Terzic evened the race with two laps to go, and the sophomore phenom brought the race home hard, splitting a remarkable 46.02 time. The relay’s 3:09.88 mark shattered the former Thompson Aquatic Center record of 3:14.73, which a Bulldog relay set two years prior.

Earning the runner-up spot on the men’s side was junior Matt Adams (Vista, CA) in the 3-meter (173.75), sophomore Tim Sanders (Pasadena, CA) in the 1-meter (208.79), Harp in the 100 freestyle (47.70) and sophomore Andrew Smith-Jones (Annapolis, MD) in the 200 backstroke (2:04.70).

Prior to the start of the meet, the Bulldogs honored their 13 senior teammates in a Senior Day ceremony. Those recognized included Carey Best (La Quinta, CA), Jen Caron (San Dimas, CA), Ali Davis (Pleasanton, CA), Lily Landeros (El Cajon, CA), Lyons, Hillary Nicholson (Santa Cruz, CA), Cassie Pardee (Sierra Vista, AZ), Mende Romaniak (Bend, OR), Marc Hicks (Granada, CA), Andrew McGraw (Coronado, CA), Olds, Matt Soriano (Fullerton, CA) and Clint Stevenson (South Jordan, UT).

With the dual meet season over, Redlands (5-3, 5-2 SCIAC; 6-2, 6-1 SCIAC) will train in the upcoming weeks for its conference championship meet. The SCIAC Diving Prelims event is set for Saturday and Sunday at the El Monte Aquatic Center in El Monte, CA, while the SCIAC Championships will take place from Feb. 12-14 at the Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, CA.