EAST LOS ANGELES, Calif. - The Golden Eagles men's and women's swim teams wrapped up the first half of their seasons at the La Verne Invitational at East Los Angeles College this past weekend. The three day meet line-up included three NCAA D1 women's teams, three nationally ranked D2 women's teams and two nationally ranked D2 men's teams among the 16 schools participating. The competition reflected it!
Our CUI teams came into the meet with expectations of putting up strong times and seeing where their 13 weeks of training put them. Of the over 200 individual swims that the Golden Eagles participated in, 165 (or roughly 77%) were season or personal best times. That is a healthy number for this part of the season and the focus of the second half will get us to our goal of over 85% best times.
Jayden Hernandez had an outstanding meet with two runner up finishes in the 50 free and 100 butterfly. Each were PRs and are now the #2 swims all-time in CUI history. He also finaled in the 100 free in a PR and was a member of four top-5 relays. His 50 free and 100 butterfly times are each within tenths of a second of NCAA "B" qualifying times.
Freshman
Rachel Maki broke through that barrier securing the lone "B" cut for the Golden Eagles this weekend. Her 500 free was a PR by 3 seconds and she followed it up with finals swims (and PRs) in her 100 and 200 freestyles as well. Rachel swam on two free relays that jumped into the CUI All-Time Top-10. The 200 free relay (with
Hailey Garcia,
Alice Stainer and
Aranza Martha) and the 400 free relay (same foursome) are now 7th and 8th in school history.
Hailey Garcia, a senior, broke through a couple of barriers of her own this weekend. She swam to a 23.97 in her 50 free, her first effort under 24-seconds and good for the 3rd best swim in school history. She PR'd in her 100 free (52.18, 3rd all time) and she split a 51.9 on the final 400 free relay, her first time under 52-seconds. She is 1/10th from a NCAA cut in both the 50 and 100 freestyle events.
CUI freshmen had an outstanding weekend as a group.
Naomi Nakaya (PRs 100-200 butterfly, 8th & 5th all time),
Carissa Ward (PRs 100 back, 200 IM, 4th & 7th all time),
Julian Hernandez (PRs 100-200 butterfly, 8th & 9th all time),
Owen Neitzel (PR 100 butterfly, 11th all time),
Aidan Keane (PR 200 back, 8th all time), and
Payton Doak (200 butterfly, 7th all time) each came up big and helped set this team up for a lot of success at the conference championships.
Plenty of familiar faces reached the evening final sessions including
Jon Sutherlin (200 free, PR, 7th in race and 500 free, 3rd all time),
Aubrie Carver (PRs 200 IM, 100 back, 7th & 3rd all time),
Trevor Dixon (PRs 100-200 breast),
Alice Stainer (200-500 free, close to NCAA qualifying times),
Breakthrough races and the "Oh my gosh, did I just do that?" look at the scoreboard were plentiful.
Nash Baker (100 back),
Hannah Chabin (400 IM),
Zoey Carrillo (50 free, 500 free),
Mariko Edwards (100 breast), Naomi (100 butterfly),
Breckynn Willis (100 butterfly), Julian (200 butterfly),
Joey Molettieri (100 free), Jon (500 free),
Garrin Hatfield (200 butterfly), and Owen's 2-man swim-off for a finals berth in the 100 butterfly provided some of the best moments of the weekend.
"We worked really hard to get to this meet. We always battle through the long fall, and this one was no different, but THIS team is different. We've got something going! We saw some really good results, a lot of decent results and some others that we can work on to improve. On short rest with mostly no shaves and some ongoing aches and pains, this ended up being a really nice meet for us" said Head Coach,
Bert Bergen. "We now regroup, welcome some roster additions for the 2nd semester and set our sights on the next 12 weeks and the PCSC Championships. The team's attitudes, energy, connectedivity, and resilience were really fun to see this weekend. The behind-the-scenes goofy dynamic is new for us and really something that has created a bond. I couldn't be happier with how great this staff has responded to and led this team from a faith perspective. Let's get this going! #swimforHIM"
