HOME OF BULLDOG SWIMMING & DIVING - 11 SCIAC Championships

2008-09 Summary: Bulldog Swimming & Diving Rewrites Record Books

Armed with extraordinary first-year talent, the University of Redlands swimming & diving teams battled through the 2008-09 dual meet season before excelling at both the 2009 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championships and the 2009 NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships.

Both teams started off the season with the UR Swim Invite before taking on NAIA powerhouse Cal Baptist University in a dual meet. Despite the setback against the reigning NAIA champions, the Bulldogs rebounded with strong showings at the Bulldog Pentathlon and the Bulldog Dive Invite, tuning up for their first conference meet of the season.

Redlands proved too much to handle for Whittier College and Cal Lutheran University on the opening weekend of SCIAC competition. The newcomers broke out of their molds that weekend as freshman Tyler Harp (San Bernardino, CA), sophomore Miran Terzic (Mostar, Bosna i Hercegovina) and freshman McKenzie Nakamura (Kenmore, WA) all lived up to their billings. On the women’s side, junior Melanie Loo (Waipahu, HI), sophomore Michelle Camburn (Sunnyvale, CA), sophomore Kat McIntosh, sophomore Kelley Cooper (San Antonio, TX) and senior Hillary Nicholson captured at least one event against the Regals.

After an arduous week of training during the winter term break, the Bulldogs swept Caltech before meeting up with Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in a highly-anticipated meet. Both sophomore Alec Alders (Los Angeles, CA) and Terzic outperformed the field in each of their individual events to pace the men’s team to a 168-75 victory. However, the women’s meet went down to the wire. Despite possessing a deep pool of talent in each event, the Maroon and Gray dropped a heart-breaking 110-130 decision to the Sagehens. Nicholson, Nakamura, Camburn and McIntosh all registered event victories in the loss.

Occidental College and the University of La Verne came up next for both teams, and each dismantled the Tigers and Leopards with ease before meeting rival Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges in their dual meet finale on Jan. 31. The Stags, Athenas and Bulldogs all torched the Thompson Aquatic Center facility record book as the squads combined for five broken marks. Unfortunately, the Athenas won by a sizable margin and the Stags snapped the Bulldogs’ conference dual meet win streak that dated back to Jan. 29, 2000, with a 129-114 triumph over the Redlands men.

At the end of the dual meet season, the men amassed a 6-2 record, which included a 6-1 mark in the SCIAC, while the women strung together a 5-3 tally and managed a 5-2 record in conference meets.

Eying redemption, the Maroon and Gray prepared in the upcoming weeks for the SCIAC Championships in Long Beach. No swimmer disappointed as both contingents used their depth as an advantage, sending droves of swimmers back for the evening sessions. Day one began in Redlands’ favor as the men’s 200 freestyle relay of Terzic, junior John Floersch (San Jose, CA), senior Buddy Olds (Murrieta, CA) and Harp combined for a first-place finish (1:23.16). Alders snagged the Bulldogs’ first individual title with a 4:38.90 performance in the men’s 500 freestyle, and Nakamura followed suit in the ensuing event, clocking the gold standard in the women’s 200 individual medley (2:08.78). The men’s 50 freestyle featured Terzic completing the splash-and-dash in 20.31, taking first, while Harp followed closely behind with a scorching 20.39. Both times cleared the NCAA automatic qualifying mark, and the two punched their tickets to Minneapolis.

Despite trailing the Stags after the first day of competition, the Bulldogs shocked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps in the men’s 200 medley relay as sophomore Mike Reilly (Coral Gables, FL), freshman Mike Grant (Weston, MA), Harp and Terzic came from behind and pulled off a surprising victory. Harp muscled out a 22.02 butterfly leg before Terzic used a heroic 19.75 anchor leg to touch out the Stags by .19 with a time of 1:34.34. Harp and Terzic placed first and second, respectively, in the men’s 100 butterfly with times of 50.02 and 50.74, and in the men’s 200 freestyle, Alders stood atop the award podium’s apex for a second time following a first-place finish (1:42.98). In the women’s 100 breaststroke, Nakamura offered a solid provisional cut with a program-record 1:05.95, taking second. Finally, chopping a second and a half off of her morning swim, McIntosh placed sixth in the women’s 100 butterfly with a scorching time of 58.65.

A strong back half lifted Alders over Pomona-Pitzer’s David Hendrickson in the men’s 1650 freestyle (16:05.58) as the sophomore sensation captured his third gold with the victory. Camburn capped off a successful season in the women’s 1650 freestyle, slicing .35 seconds off of the program record in a sixth-place outing. The Harp and Terzic show rolled in again in the men’s 100 freestyle as Harp stopped the clock first at 44.97 while Terzic finished second in 45.44. Nakamura turned in a second-place time of 2:23.85 in the women’s 200 breaststroke, finishing the meet with three top-two showings. Redlands capped off the weekend with a thrilling 400 freestyle relay as the quartet of Olds, Terzic, Floersch and Harp fired off phenomenal splits and eclipsed the 26-year-old SCIAC record in the event with a sizzling 3:02.46 standard.

On the boards, the Maroon and Gray received strong performances from senior Jenna Lyons (Whittier, CA), junior Matt Adams (Vista, CA) and sophomore Tim Sanders (Pasadena, CA).

At the meet’s end, the Bulldog women avenged their January loss to Pomona-Pitzer, accumulating the second-highest point total (621) during the three-day event. The Redlands men succumbed to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and finished second with 871 points.

For his impact in every event he swam over the weekend, Harp earned the SCIAC Athlete of the Year Award on the men’s side of the meet.

Harp and Terzic gained the squad’s only NCAA “A” cuts while Olds, Floersch, Alders, Nakamura, Reilly, Grant and McIntosh all picked up NCAA “B” marks either individually or on a relay.

In the fastest year of swimming at the NCAA Division III level, invitations to the national meet proved few and far between. Olds and Floersch, however, earned a spot in the meet as members of the 400 freestyle relay team and subsequently joined Harp and Terzic in swimming the 200 freestyle relay and the 800 freestyle relay as well. The four combined for a 14th-place finish in the 400 freestyle relay (3:03.95) and locked up Honorable Mention All-American honors in the process. Individually, Harp swam the 100 freestyle (45.58, 24th), the 100 butterfly (50.27, 21st) and the 50 freestyle (20.86, T-27th), Terzic competed in the 100 freestyle (46.53, T-46th), the 100 butterfly (51.45, 39th) and the 50 freestyle (20.74, T-21st) and Olds took on the 100 freestyle (46.95, 55th).

Men’s and women’s swimmers alike erased program records. New standards were set by Harp in the 100 butterfly, 100 freestyle and 50 freestyle, Terzic in the 50 freestyle, Nakamura in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, Camburn in the 1650 freestyle and Alders in the 1000 freestyle. Additionally, the men’s 200 freestyle relay, the men’s 200 medley relay, the men’s 400 freestyle relay and the men’s 800 freestyle relay all established program records.

With the majority of the team returning next year, the Bulldogs aim to chase both conference and program records while remaining a staple among the conference’s elite.