California Baptist University
A3 Performance Invitational
Steady Strokes
11/20/2014 8:41:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving, Swimming and Diving
EAST LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- In preparation for what it hopes will be another strong run at the NCAA Division II Championships, California Baptist University took to the elite A3 Performance Invitational, hosted by UC San Diego, this weekend.
The eighth-ranked Lancers opened the three-day event, which includes Division I institutions like UCLA, USC, UC Santa Barbara and D-II rivals like UCSD, Thursday with four top-20 finishes out of 10 events, with its 400-yard medley relay team leading the way. CBU sits in 12th place with 112 points a third of the way through the meet.
"We did great against all D-I swimmers, there were only two D-II programs there," Coach Rick Rowland said. "There were a lot of big swims today. We had a lot of pretty good times."
Mary Hanson, Alena Rumiantceva, Kristina Tchernyschev and Patricia Hapsari guided CBU to a team-best fifth-place finish in the 400-medley, clocking in in three minutes 44.76 seconds.
Hanson also gave the Lancers a top-10 performance individually when she went sixth in the 50 freestyle in 23.57 seconds -- well under the B cut for the 2014-15 NCAA Division II Championships of 24.12. She will continue her push for the A time of 22.97 the rest of the season.
Tchernyschev, Kyndal Terwilliger, Kylie Mihld and Robin Smallwood also put CBU in the finals for the 200-free relay Thursday, with the quartet taking 13th place in 1:39.43.
Hapsari put together a strong swim in the 200 individual medley, winning the C-final in 2:04.31, which put her 17th overall in the event but was good for 11th based strictly on finals times.
"Mary really put together a highlight swim in that 50 free," Rowland said.
CBU will pick back up in the A3 Performance Invitational Friday morning and will return Saturday.
Players Mentioned
