Lancers Block Roadrunners

Saturday, December 12

Riverside, Calif.

12:00 PM

California Baptist University

158

142

Bakersfield

Photo by: Jacob Gonzalez

Lancers Block Roadrunners

12/12/2015 5:27:00 PM | Men's Swimming and Diving, Swimming and Diving

By: Andrew Shortall, Asst. Sports Information Director

RESULTS

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Finally at full strength with the water polo players reporting for duty, California Baptist University impressively passed a formidable test when it defeated NCAA Division I Bakersfield, 158-142, at the Lancer Aquatics Center Saturday afternoon.

Nine victories, as well as depth in several events, guided CBU to victory over the rival Roadrunners. The Lancers' 400-yard freestyle relay teams helped seal the win, as it took second and third in the event to hold off Bakersfield's comeback attempt.

"Any time you can beat a Division I team you've done good," Coach Rick Rowland said. "This is always a big rivalry meet, we've been swimming against Bakersfield for 15 of my 16 years. We've only beaten Bakersfield about three times now, I think. Any time we can beat them it really speaks volumes about where we're headed."

Josh Hanson guided the Lancers to four wins, with three coming in individual races, while Alexis Ohmar added three individual wins of his own. Robert Griffith and Tanner Shore also posted solo victories for CBU, with Shore doing it in his collegiate swimming debut and all the way from lane eight.

"One of the highlight swims today was the freshman getting the win in his debut," Rowland said of Shore's win in the 200-yard freestyle. "That was a pretty impressive way to start the meet."

Shore's time of one minute, 43.57 seconds was more than half a second faster than Bakersfield's Christopher Salcido (1:43.99). The Corona native just completed the water polo season, where he made the Western Water Polo Association's All-Freshman team, and was just two weeks into training for the swim season.

"I'm still getting used to it, it's been tough having just a week off for Thanksgiving and then jumping right into swim, but I'm having fun and enjoying it," Shore said.

After all, who doesn't like to win? It's even better when it's unexpected.

"I didn't have any high expectations, I just wanted to do my best and I did pretty well, so I'm happy with that," Shore said. "I didn't think I would win, I would have been happy with top-five. It feels good to help the team."

For Rowland, his patience to see Shore in person paid off and only sparked his interest for what's to come from the true freshman.

"Tanner is a great middle-distance swimmer, but he can swim a lot of distances – the 50, 100, 200 and 500," Rowland said. "He doesn't have a weak event in freestyle, and he has a lot of strokes, so we will have to see where we put him. He has a bright future ahead, that's for sure."

Shore also swam on CBU's 400-freestyle A relay team, alongside Ohmar, Bernardo Valentim and Elijah Barrows. They took second in 3:07.74, while the B squad of Griffith, Ashton Lowery, Josh Fleutsch and Brent Teraoka took third in 3:16.12.

While Shore's wins were surprising, Hanson and Ohmar's were anything but. Hanson won the 200 breast (2:03.44), butterfly (1:50.11) and individual medley (1:50.11) in impressive fashion, cruising into first place by at least five seconds in each event. Hanson's final victory came when he teamed with Andrew Denton, James Wilson and Teraoka in the 200-medley relay (1:34.77).

Ohmar posted victories in the 500 free (4:40.32), 100 backstroke (52.97) and 100 free (46.90). The 100 freestyle was perhaps the Lancers most impressive event, as they had four of the top-five swimmers in Valentim (second, 47.67); Shore (48.16) and Barrows (48.42).

CBU would also produce three of the top four in the 50 free – Teraoka (21.45); Denton (21.91) and Shore (22.05). The team also went one-two in the 500 free, 1,000 free and 100 backstroke.

Per usual, Griffith had a big part to play in the distance freestyle success, with a win in the 1,000 in 9:42.09 and runner-up mark behind Ohmar in the 500 (4:41.47). Barrows took second in the 1,000 (9:47.47).

Wilson also had some impressive runner-up swims, coming in just behind Ohmar in the 100 back (53.72) and then taking second in the 200 back (1:59.48). Chris Sands had two medal finishes in the butterflies, taking second in the 100 (53.23) and third in the 200 (1:57.78). Justin Quiroga continued to shine in his freshman campaign, taking third in the 100 breast (1:00.56) and 200 IM (1:58.30).

On the diving boards, CBU got more valuable points with two top-four divers in each event, including the runner-up both times. It was also an opportunity for the Lancers to begin mixing in their national-list dives.

"This is a great competition, and I look forward to going against [Bakersfield] next week," Dive Coach Jeff Couto said. "I think we are in a good place. Naturally, there's an adjustment period as we begin our national lists."

Zach Parry took silver on the one-meter board with 254.85 points, just missing first place by 2.70 points. Lancer teammate Zach Mullins went second on the three-meter (254.24). Parry took fourth on the three with 241.80 points, finishing just .08 of a point off third place. Kendall Rummell took fourth on the one (243).

"Come back in a week and I think you will see the tides change a little bit in the point system," Couto said. "I am just proud of the guys, and we are definitely looking forward to our meet next week."

CBU's swim and dive teams will split up next week. The swimmers will head to Hayward, Calif., for the Cal State East Bay Christmas Invite Thursday to Saturday. Back in Riverside, the divers will compete in their own Inland Empire Dive Invite back at the Lancer Aquatics Center on Saturday at 11 a.m.