HOME OF BULLDOG SWIMMING & DIVING - 11 SCIAC Championships

The University of Redlands swimming & diving teams assaulted the programs’ record books on Friday at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming & Diving Championships as both squads put up blistering performances.

Friday’s evening session started out with a tight race between three teams for second in the women’s 200 medley relay as the foursome of senior Hillary Nicholson (Santa Cruz, CA), freshman McKenzie Nakamura (Kenmore, WA), freshman Whitney Marsh (Folsom, CA) and sophomore Kat McIntosh (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) combined for a quick fourth-place standard of 1:51.60.

The first upset of the evening came by means of the men’s 200 medley relay. Down by three quarters of a second heading into the final leg, sophomore Miran Terzic (Mostar, Bosna I Hercegovina) fired off an unbelievable split of 19.75 to catch Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges’ Ryan Kristensen, which gave the Bulldogs the win in the event. The team of sophomore Mike Reilly (Coral Gables, FL), freshman Mike Grant (Weston, MA), freshman Tyler Harp (San Bernardino, CA) and Terzic set a SCIAC meet record and a Redlands team mark with a 1:34.34 time. That performance, which also is an NCAA provisional qualifying standard, broke the former program mark of 1:35.12 and the former SCIAC meet standard of 1:34.87.

Senior Jenna Lyons (Whittier, CA) took fourth in the women’s 1-meter diving finals, posting up a solid score of 297.75.

On the men’s 3-meter board, both junior Matt Adams (Vista, CA) and sophomore Tim Sanders (Pasadena, CA) helped the Bulldogs’ cause by taking fourth and sixth with respective scores of 342.70 and 303.10.

Sophomore Michelle Camburn (Sunnyvale, CA) was the lone Bulldog representative in the women’s 400 individual medley finals as she took eighth with a 4:48.11 mark.

Seven of the eight championship finalists in the men’s 400 individual medley represented either Claremont-Mudd-Scripps or Redlands. Senior Marc Hicks (Granada Hills, CA) claimed the event’s runner-up spot with a quick time of 4:11.23 while freshman Will Houser (Woodinville, WA) and junior Ned Voytovich (Salt Lake City, UT) took fourth and fifth, respectively, for the Maroon and Gray with swims of 4:24.61 and 4:25.01.

Coming out of lane eight, McIntosh stunned the field by touching the wall fifth in the women’s 100 butterfly. The sophomore transfer also corralled an NCAA provisional qualifying time in the event with a 58.60 mark.

Redlands’ two heavy hitters, Harp and Terzic, put up another one-two finish for the Bulldogs when they paced the men’s 100 butterfly field. Harp covered the four-lap event in a program-record 50.02 and won while Terzic settled for second with a 50.74 time. Harp’s winning time erased Matthew Ballard ‘95’s 1995 program record of 50.85 while both student-athletes picked up an NCAA “B” cut in the process. Reilly checked in with a solid 52.36 mark and took seventh.

Sophomore Alec Alders (Los Angeles, CA) locked up his second individual event win of the meet with a come-from-behind victory in the men’s 200 freestyle. Down a quarter of a second coming into the last 50 yards, Alders battled back and touched out Claremont-Mudd-Scripps’ John Sloat with a time of 1:42.98.

The women’s 100 breaststroke proved to be a battle from start to finish as Nakamura challenged the Athenas’ 2008 All-American, Annie Perizzolo, and finished second. Nakamura turned at the 50-yard mark at 31.30 and brought back her last half in a 34.65 to check in at a program-record 1:05.95. Her performance eclipsed the former Redlands record of 1:07.86, which Cathleen Penney ’07 set in 2007. In addition, her swim fell well under the NCAA “B” qualifying time in the event.

Despite facing stiff competition in the men’s 100 breaststroke, Grant held on to garner a fifth-place finish with a sub-minute time of 59.85.

In the women’s 100 backstroke, Nicholson improved upon her seed by one place as she shaved .06 seconds off of her preliminary swim with a seventh-place time of 1:01.67.

Depth enabled Redlands to dampen the blow top finishes by the Stags in the men’s 100 backstroke as the Bulldogs took sixth through eighth. Reilly placed sixth with a 55.14 time, junior Ian Starkie (Arroyo Grande, CA) took seventh with a 55.18 mark and senior Buddy Olds (Murrieta, CA) rounded out the field with an eighth-place 55.31.

Sophomore Kelley Cooper (San Antonio, TX), junior Kelly Goeres (Tigard, OR), Camburn and Nakamura teamed up in the women’s 800 freestyle relay and held off Occidental College for fourth place with a 8:02.61 performance.

The Maroon and Gray suffered a tough defeat in the men’s 800 freestyle relay as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps overtook the Bulldogs on the relay’s second leg and eventually held on to win by nearly two seconds. Harp led off the relay and set a program record in the 200 freestyle with a 1:40.69 swim. His leadoff leg, which also stands as a solid NCAA provisional qualifying time, edged Trevor Harp ‘07’s 2007 record of 1:40.71. Terzic, Olds and Alders rounded out the remainder of the quartet that touched second in a program-record and NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 6:54.35. Their time erased the program’s former gold standard of 6:57.56, which was set in 1992.

After the second day of competition, the Athenas and the Stags hold a lead on both the women’s and men’s sides, respectively. Both Bulldog teams sit in second as the women have amassed 400 points while the men have accumulated 565.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, who serves as the meet’s host, has results available on its athletics Web site, http://www.cmsathletics.com. Floswimming is providing video coverage of the meet at http://www.floswimming.org/videos/coverage/view/234630-sciac-swimming-championships.