California Baptist University
UC San Diego
Seniors Shine Versus Tritons
1/20/2018 3:54:00 PM | Women's Swimming and Diving, Swimming and Diving
RESULTS
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Eleven California Baptist University athletes celebrated their Senior Day with an NCAA Division II rivalry dual with sixth-ranked UC San Diego at the Lancer Aquatics Center Saturday afternoon.
The 13th-ranked Lancers won four events in a 212-88 loss, which concluded their dual and home season. CBU's focus now shifts to the postseason, as it will compete at the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships next on Feb. 14-17 in Lewisville, Texas.
"It was a great day for our seniors, there were some great races all over the place today," Coach Rick Rowland said. "Now, it's time to focus on your four events and qualifying for NCAAs."
Distance events continued to be an area of dominance for CBU, as the Lancers won both the 500 and 1000-yard freestyles, and even swept the top-three spots in the 500 free. Christie Halverson won the 500 free on her Senior Day with a time of five minutes, 1.79 seconds, while Buse Topcu (5:04.73) and Mackenzie Mergel (5:07.90) took second and third, respectively. Halverson and Topcu both notched D-II consideration times (5:06.05) in the process.
"I remember after the senior sendoff coach told me to have fun today, but I reminded myself it's fun to swim fast," Halverson said. "I wanted to keep that competitive edge and it went well today."
Earlier in the day, Topcu set a meet record when she won the 1000 free in 10:16.57. It was almost 12 seconds faster than UCSD's runner-up, Haley Hamza (10:38.14), and well under the D-II consideration time (10:27.56).
Sofia Petrenko picked up another Lancer win and B cut in the 200 butterfly, with a time of 2:04.41, which was two-and-a-half seconds better than second place Amanda Sumrow (2:06.93) of UCSD. Petrenko won the 400 individual medley in another consideration time of 4:28.77 and then contributed even more points with a third-place swim in the 200 back (2:08.30).
Halverson nabbed a second-place finish in the 200 free (1:54.53), right off the B cut of 1:53.62, and then added another medal finish when she took third in the 100 free (54.13).
"I was just so happy to be here and it was so much fun," Halverson said. "It was cool to see the culmination of everything, it's crazy how fast these four years have gone."
The Lancers ended the day with a second-place finish in the 800-free relay, thanks to Halverson, Topcu, Mergel and Petrenko posting a time of 7:42.64.
Savannah Uhlir secured a big second-place finish at the 1-meter diving board for CBU, with 227.40 points, and then took third on the 3-meter (229.50).
One of CBU's best displays of depth came in the 200 breast, as Robin Smallwood (2:27.65), Melody Coleman (2:30.13) and Amanda Loya (2:30.52) took third through fifth. Smallwood added a fourth-place finish in the 100 breast (1:06.47) to her resume, as well.
Emily Longfellow scored individual points for the Lancers by taking third in the 100 butterfly (59.55) and fifth in a tightly-contested 100 back (59.63). Her 100 back time ended up just about half a second off second place.
Jenna Washburn produced two top-five swims, as well, as the true freshman took fourth in the 100 free (54.31) and fifth in the 50 free (25.36).
There were four other fifth-place individual performances from the Lancers, with Kylie Morrison doing so twice in the 100 (1:00.10) and 200 butterflies (2:12.14) and Mergel taking fifth in the 200 free (1:56.21). In return from an injury, Emily Dunkerson took fifth at the 1-meter board (180.45) and 3-meter dive (212.02), as well.
Players Mentioned
