MONTEREY PARK, Calif.- The men's and women's swim teams completed their 2022-2023 campaigns at the PCSC Championships at East Los Angeles College on Saturday. The men recorded their 5th straight top-3 team finish scoring 515 points to outlast a tough Fresno Pacific squad. The women rallied on days 3-4 to move up to 6th place, posting their third highest point total in program history (685.5) in beating DI LMU, Alaska-Fairbanks and Westmont among the 15-team field.
Chris Haygood clipped his personal best in the 100 free on the final day, grabbing a silver medal and missing an NCAA qualifying time by 1/10th of a second.
Hunter May rallied for a personal best in the 200 butterfly (1:55.87) to take bronze as freshman
Khang Cao was 8th in the same event in a season best of 1:58.12p.
Ryan Martines (2:08.78) and
Jack Harris (2:08.13p) were 6th and 7th in the 200 breaststroke,
Lanis Webb finished 6th in the 200 backstroke (1:53.76p), and
Jon Sutherlin was the last A-finalist for the men, grabbing a 5th in the 1650 freestyle.
For the women,
Ryan Burke was bronze medalist in the 200 butterfly and now waits to find out if she has earned a spot at next month's NCAA Championships. Fellow NCAA qualifier,
Alice Stainer was 12th in the 100 freestyle and
Hailey Garcia (17th, B-final winner) and
Aranza Martha (22nd) also scored in the 100 free. Freshman
Alex Leland ended her season with a flourish taking a wire-to-wire victory in the 200 breast C-final in a season best.
Ellie Hardey was 12th in the B final and their times now rank 7th (Ellie) and 8th (Alex) all-time in CUI history.
Helping the Golden Eagle cause on Saturday night were
Aubrie Carver (10th, 200 backstroke), 2-time meet A-finalist
Georgia Caraway (16th, 200 back),
Claire Oppedahl (22nd, 200 back),
Aliyah Treadwell (24th, 200 back),
Jade Hughes (21st, 200 breast and 22nd, 1650 free), and freshman
Makayla Novak who was 24th with a new PR in the 200 fly.
The Golden Eagles closed the meet with some style as the women put up the 2nd fastest 4x100 free relay in CUI history taking 6th in the event. Alice,
Nicole Tormey, Aranza, and Hailey (52.2 anchor split) swam to a swift 3:32.00. The men followed suit with a thrilling 3rd place finish as five teams finished within 5 seconds of each other. Chris, Lanis,
Isaiah Phillips and
Landon McIntire (46.2 anchor split) finished in 3:07.09 holding off The Master's and Biola.
For the championship, the CUI women qualified 70% of their swims into the finals and 30 of their swims moved onto the CUI All-Time top-10 lists. Two women earned four NCAA qualifying times this season. The men had 84% of their swims qualify for finals and seven new All-Time top-10 swims.
This was a wonderful season of growth in the areas of maturity, confidence and healing. With one graduating scoring senior on the roster of 42 and the addition of some amazing new Golden Eagle point scorers next fall, CUI expects 2023-2024 to be one of our best seasons yet. #swimforHIM
