HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. - The CUI men's and women's swim and dive teams hosted the annual PCSC Relay Meet at Golden West College on Saturday.
With a very comfy backdrop of green and yellow lane lines, backstroke flags and GWC canopies, the Golden Eagles got the season rolling in a great way. The women finished second to top-conference foe APU, while besting Westmont and The Master's University, while the men emerged victorious on the strength of a 1-3 finish in the final relay to knock off last year's champs, the Mustangs from TMU by 4 points.
The CUI women crushed their previous record at this meet in the 3x100 breaststroke as
Alex Leland,
Brinkley Hallgren and
Ellie Hardey clipped four seconds off the record while winning the event by a whopping nine seconds. The women were also victorious in the 4x100 medley relay as
Aubrie Carver, Leland,
Naomi Nakaya and
Hannah Edwards put up a solid 4:01.68 winning time. In that event, CUI's C relay (
Noelle Landon, Hallgren,
Lily Hartwell,
Marin Mowad) and B relay (
Carissa Ward,
Ellie Hardey,
Aranza Martha and
Ruby McCullough) finished 3rd and 4th respectively.
The second school meet record came in the 4x50 free relay as Leland,
Alice Stainer, Carver, and Edwards knocked 1.3 seconds off the previous mark with a 1:40.66.
Later in the afternoon, freshman
Chloe Dobie, in her collegiate diving debut, won both the 1m and 3m competitions at the Laguna Niguel Aquatic Center. Her scores rank her fourth on both boards in CUI history and the victories are the first by a CUI diver in likely more than 10 years! A special thank you to APU's diving team and coach for helping co-host the diving event.
The men won six events (3x100 Butterfly, 3x100 Breaststroke, 500 Step, 4x100 Medley, 4x50 Free and 4x100 Free Relays). Swimming on four victorious relays were
Jayden Hernandez and
Logan Irvine.
Jonathan Dose and
Legend Storer were on three and
Joey Molettieri and
Jack Harris won two each. A special shout out to
Mitchell Cullen who was more than two body lengths behind as he entered the water on the 500 Step relay, when he blasted a 1:47 split in his 200 free leg to steal the win for the Golden Eagles.
Team meet records were set in the 4x100 Medley Relay as Irvine, Harris, Hernandez and Molettieri posted a 3:30.75 and the 4x100 Free Relay of Storer, Irvine, Molettieri and Hernandez dropped a very solid 3:10.00 besting a 14-year-old record in the event.
"We swam well despite putting together some last minute patchwork relays," said CUI head coach
Bert Bergen. " We have five women and five men out and quite a few more were swimming while fighting a pretty rough flu bug. We asked them to be resilient, stay positive and focus less on times and more on racing."
"It was a good day and a good start to the season," added Bergen. "Our freshmen looked really good and had no fear today!"
The Golden Eagles hope to get healthy in the next week as they prepare to compete at the rugged 2-day Rodianoff Invitational at Pepperdine next weekend.
CLICK HERE for the full CUI women's swim schedule
CLICK HERE for the full CUI men's swim schedule
