HOME OF BULLDOG SWIMMING & DIVING - 11 SCIAC Championships

With an NCAA “A” cut and a newly-minted school record in hand from his morning swim at the 2009 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming & Diving Championships, University of Redlands sophomore Miran Terzic (Mostar, Bosna i Hercegovina) had little else to prove in the 50 freestyle finals. What he found, however, was a worthy performance from the competitor in lane three, a student-athlete he has raced countless times.

His fellow training partner, freshman Tyler Harp (San Bernardino, CA), utilized a strong turn to pull close to him on the final stretch of the race and both ended up touching the wall under the NCAA automatic qualifying time. Terzic took the gold with a lightning-fast 20.31 time while Harp claimed the silver with a 20.39 mark. The sophomore transfer’s winning time erased former Bulldog standout and current assistant coach Trevor Harp ‘07’s program record of 20.47, which he set just two years prior.

Redlands’ women’s 200 freestyle relay squad, which consisted of freshman Casey Sripramong (Glendale, CA), freshman K.C. Hughes (Gig Harbor, WA), freshman Jaime Nippert (Gresham, OR) and sophomore Kat McIntosh (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), kicked off the Thursday night finals session with a 1:39.56 time and took second in the event only to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.

The evening session started out with a bang on the men’s side as the Redlands men’s 200 freestyle relay contingent of Terzic, junior John Floersch (San Jose, CA), senior Buddy Olds (Murrieta, CA) and Harp won by a full second and flirted with the conference record, clocking an NCAA provisional qualifying time of 1:23.16. That time also erased the program record of 1:23.97 in the event, which the Bulldog 200 freestyle relay team set back in 1994.

Taking on the meet’s first distance event, sophomore Michelle Camburn (Sunnyvale, CA) and freshman Jenny Bates (Littleton, CO) fared well in the 500 freestyle as Camburn stopped the clock sixth (5:18.09) while Bates took seventh (5:25.21).

Despite coming into the 500 freestyle finals with the sixth-best time from prelims, sophomore Alec Alders (Los Angeles, CA) defeated the event’s 2007 champion, Pomona-Pitzer Colleges’ David Hendrickson, and won in an NCAA “B” qualifying time of 4:38.90. Junior Sheldon Gruendl (Danville, CA) added depth for the Bulldogs in the event and took eighth with a 4:49.92 mark.

Freshman McKenzie Nakamura (Kenmore, WA) dueled with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ Jordan Stewart throughout the entirety of the 200 individual medley and used her breaststroke talents to pull away in the event’s second half, winning with an NCAA “B” cut of 2:08.78.

Redlands’ men were unable to beat the Stags in the 200 individual medley as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps took first through fourth place. Freshman Will Houser (Woodinville, WA) checked in at 2:00.21 and finished fifth while sophomore Andrew Smith-Jones (Annapolis, MD) settled for seventh (2:01.12).

A duo of Bulldogs placed in the top eight in the women’s 50 freestyle as McIntosh tapped in at 24.68 and took fifth while Sripramong garnered a seventh-place finish with a 25.06 mark.

Senior Jenna Lyons (Whittier, CA) helped the Maroon and Gray’s cause in the women’s 3-meter diving event, offering up a third-place showing with a score of 286.80.

On the men’s side of diving for the evening, sophomore Tim Sanders (Pasadena, CA) and junior Matt Adams (Vista, CA) shined, placing fifth and sixth in the 1-meter with respective scores of 330.85 and 297.95.

The Redlands women put up a solid performance in the 400 medley relay as senior Hillary Nicholson (Santa Cruz, CA), Nakamura, sophomore Kelley Cooper (San Antonio, TX) and McIntosh combined for a third-place time of 4:04.21.

Sophomore Mike Reilly (Coral Gables, FL), freshman Mike Grant (Weston, MA), freshman Jesse Lieberman (Princeton, NJ) and Olds teamed up in the men’s 400 medley relay and held off Occidental College for second, clocking a 3:34.78.

At the end of the first day, the women sit in second place with 197 points while the men trail Claremont-Mudd-Scripps by 70.50 and are currently in second as well with 214 points.

For additional result links and video coverage, visit Floswimming’s SCIAC Championship page at http://www.floswimming.org/videos/coverage/view/234630-sciac-swimming-championships.