RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The Concordia University Irvine men's and women's swim and dive teams took on CBU on Friday in their first competition against an opponent since last year's PCSC Championships.  It had remarkably been almost an entire year since CUI last faced another school in February of 2020.

It was a great showing for the Eagles as they earned five victories and numerous top-3 finishes against the Lancers.  Both the men and women dropped their contests against a CBU team that is firing on all cylinders after a COVID-19 scare that knocked them out of the water three weeks ago.  
 
All-Americans Kyle Benjamin and Katelyn Thomas led the way for the Eagles with four wins and two runner up finishes between them.  The final victory of the day was nabbed by PCSC First teamer Kayla Newman in the 1m diving.  Benjamin (1000 free, 9:56; 500 free, 4:47) led 1-2 finishes for the Eagles as co-captain Taylor Steffen (1000 free, 10:14) and Jon Sutherlin (500 free, 4:54) rallied to grab runner-up finishes in each rach for CUI behind their teammate.  Benjamin's swims give him the top rung in both events in the PCSC rankings.  He finished the day with a solid 1:59 200 IM catching his CBU opponent in the final 5 yards to grab a second place finish.

Thomas was a sprint machine winning the 50 back (27.28), 100 back (59.34) and taking second in the 50 fly (26.50), a 1/10 of a second behind. All three of her impressive swims vaulted her to No. 1 in the early season PCSC rankings. 
 
Thomas had a lot of help from fellow junior Faith Silzel.  Silzel had a tough slate and handled her 200 back (1st, 2:11.3), 500 free (2nd, 5:19.0) and 200 IM (2nd, 2:14.6) admirably.  She also threw down a 25.2 PR split on the closing 4x50 free relay with Halliona Bacon, Mikayla Jean and Katelyn Thomas powering the Eagles to a nail-biter second place finish!  Silzel's swims put her second, third, and fourth respectively in the PCSC.
 
The freshmen are gaining experience and confidence with each passing week.  Hailey Garcia (50 free-3rd, 100 free-3rd), Breckynn Willis (50 fly-3rd, 100 fly-3rd) and Georgia Caraway (100 breast-3rd, 200 IM-4th, 100 fly-4th) each now have multiple times ranked in the top-6 in the PCSC.  Breckynn's 50 fly ranks #2 behind teammate, Katelyn and Georgia's 100 fly ranks #2 behind teammate Breckynn!
 
The men are finding their form and are getting up and racing.  Newcomer Andrew Dimino put up a clutch 1:46.3 for third place in the 200 free and anchored the runner up 4x50 free relay in a swift, 21.2 split.  Senior co-captain Skyler Hojnacki was in solid sprint form with 27.7-1:01.1 in the short breaststrokes, teammate Ryan Martines was right behind in 1:01.9 in the 100.

Just days after being named Newport Rib Company Eagle of the Week Chris Haygood continued to impress with a 2nd in the 100 free and thirds in the 50 and 100 butterfly.  Haygood was also named PCSC Swimmer of the Week as a true freshman this past Wednesday.
 
"We've waited a long time to get up and race someone and Friday was a lot of fun," said CUI head coach Bert Bergen.  "Good swims are contagious; we started the meet really well with our relays and 1000s and the momentum kept going.  We are tired and have lots of small things to work on but overall, we were so grateful to get on buses, put on the team gear and swim and dive against someone!  Having four members of our men's water polo team join this week, swim multiple races and earn a 3rd place finish on the last relay was a nice boost and one of the coolest things of the season. This is a great group of young people."
 
The CUI women head to the University of San Diego to take on the D1 Toreros next Saturday before both squads host Fresno Pacific on February 20.

For the full CUI women's swimming and diving schedule: CLICK HERE
For the full CUI men's swimming & diving schedule: CLICK HERE

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