ALISO VIEJO, Calif. - The men's and women's swim teams ended a busy month of meets with a bang Saturday at the Soka Invitational. Both squads were swimming their third competition in as many weeks while putting in some rugged training but these were no obstacles to the Eagles as the Green and Gold posted wins in both the men's and women's divisions at the one-day, 8-team meet. The CUI women scored 374 points to best Fresno Pacific (355), Biola (249) and Azusa Pacific (190) while the men featured 16 of 21 members competing and tallied 429 points to defeat the Sunbirds (388), Biola (294), and Simpson (108).
The Eagles took home ten wins in all with senior
Maddie Dodge (200 free, 200 IM) and junior
Taylor Steffen (500 free, 1000 free) taking two each. Maddie also grabbed a second place finish in the 100 free and a second on the women's 200 medley relay to cap an impressive day.
Just days after being named the PCSC Male Swimmer of the Week, Steffen repeated his tough distance double this weekend while also grabbing a 10th in the 200 free.
Seven other Eagles claimed top podium spots as
Katelyn Thomas (100 back),
Mikayla Jean (200 butterfly) and
Faith Silzel (500 free) were victorious for the women.
Kyle Benjamin (200 butterfly),
Armando Cadena Padilla,
Kobe Gall (200 IM) and
Braeden Glor (200 backstroke) all earned wins for the men.
The CUI men's squad provided the two swims of the meet. In the 200 back, Glor, Benjamin,
Caden Carver, and
Aidan Bouchard combined for a furious final 50 yards and were able to secure a 1-2-3-4 finish in that event.
In the 200 IM, Cadena came back from fourth place at the 150 mark to tie teammate Kobe for the win as
Skyler Hojnacki was a shade behind in fourth place.
Other highlights on the women's side included Dodge and Silzel's 1-2 finish in the 200 free as the only two swimmers to break the 2:00 barrier,
Emily Kivisto's season best 1:11 in her 100 breaststroke and
Halliona Bacon's 25.15 runner up finish in the 50 free.
For the men, Albe Cortes and
Tim Townsend finished second and third respectively in a very fast 100 freestyle race, and the men's 200 free relay of Cortes, Townsend, Gall and
Maxwell Wickens blasted to a runner-up finish at 1:27.75, which was a season best for CUI.
Both CUI teams now begins preparations for their mid-season peak meet, the Collegiate Invitational at East Los Angeles College December 6-8. After a few more weeks of heavy training followed by a short taper, along with the return of four dual sport water polo players will position the Eagles well as they get ready to go in December.
For the full CUI swimming and diving schedule, click here.
