LONG BEACH, Calif. - The UC San Diego swimming and diving teams are one day away from dual victories at the PCSC Championships, looking to take home conference titles on both the men's and women's side for the third time in four years and repeat the feat accomplished last season. The Tritons won four events during day three as Alex Henley repeated as conference champ in the 400 IM, Anju Shimura won the 100 back, Juan Pablo Carrillo was victorious in the 100 breast, and Tyler Runsten placed first in the three-meter diving event.
UCSD also increased the total number of NCAA qualifiers to 28 after the performances of Sam Duimovich and Casey Adams in their respective 400 IM events. The Triton men now sit nearly 100 points ahead of second place Seattle University, 1071 to 979.5, while the women's total of 961 leads Loyola Marymount's 922 tally.
"We obviously had a lot of standout performances, but for me, the highlight of the night was having both swimmers-Adams & Diumovich-qualify in their respective 400 IM races," said head coach Scott McGihon. "The emotions from them and their parents were memorable. Moments like that are pretty special."
Adams qualified with a fifth-place time of 4:31.96 in an event that Henley repeated as winner and set a new school record in 4:20.82, breaking a mark held by Jennifer Watanabe since 2001. Henley's time was also over eight seconds better than the next finisher, teammate Beth Dong. Duimovich qualified with a time of 4:03.78, finishing as the top UCSD swimmer in the event and fourth overall.
"The races we won were really all blowouts," said McGihon "Shimura and Carrillo really dominated from the outset and no one was near what Runstan was able to do in the finals tonight.
Shimura's win in the 100 back came in a time of 56.99, while the 400 medley relay team of Henley, Sadie O'Brien, Karla Holman, and Jessica Ferguson finished second with a time of 3:50.53, edged by less than .3 seconds by Seattle University's representatives in the race. Carrillo won the 100 breast n 55.44, with teammate Andy Islip finishing third in 58.52. Runsten's final tally in the three-meter event was 363.50, eclipsing runner-up Trevor Graifman of Cal Baptist's score of 319.80 by a significant margin.
"Our goal coming in was to win both championships for the second straight year and we've positioned ourselves to be able to do that," said McGihon. "We need one more big day tomorrow."
The final day of the PCSC Championships will be tomorrow, as UCSD looks to defend the titles won last year on both the men's and women's side. Tomorrow will also be the final day for UCSD athletes to attain qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II National Championships.
