CANTON, Ohio - A fourth individual championship for senior
Daniel Perdew and a second-place finish by sophomore
Alex Henley highlighted the opening day of the 2010 NCAA Division II Championships for head coach
Scott McGihon's UC San Diego swimming and diving team. Those performances helped lift the Tritons into fifth place on the women's side with 59 points and ninth in the men's race with 43. The event continues tomorrow and will run through Saturday at the C.T. Branin Natatoriuim in Canton, Ohio.
Drury (MO) and Wayne State (MI), with 156 and 143 points respectively, have established commanding positions atop the women's standings while only 39 points separate the first 11 teams on the men's ladder with Drury (79) also holding the No. 1 position there.
On the whole, McGihon gave positive reviews of his squad's initial day of a competition where the "speed" of the pool was in question and the swimmers were adjusting to the first national meet since new "suit technology" legislation was in force.
"After a somewhat tentative start this morning, we really picked up a lot of steam tonight," said McGihon. "The swims by Henley and Perdew were very galvanizing and, I think, injected a much-needed spark."
Perdew, the two-time defending NCAA champion in the 100 freestyle, electrified the crowd by going wire-to-wire to win the 50 freestyle Wednesday night. He had taken gold in the NCAA 50 freestyle as a sophomore and finished second last season. Seeded second in the finals after blazing to a 19.92 in the prelims, Perdew's winning time was 20.07, which nipped long time rival Mason Norman of Wingate by just .03 seconds. Although a bit disappointed by the time, Perdew knew the win was more important.
"I know that technically, it wasn't the greatest swim I've ever had but I also knew I was in it at the end," said Perdew, who wasn't sure he had actually earned the victory until he checked the scoreboard. "It feels good to win this one because it kind of gets the ball rolling for the rest of the meet. You feel more relaxed and it's easy to build off of that."
McGihon, agreeing with Perdew's analysis of the race, felt his star's mental toughness was the difference.
"Technically, it was not pretty, but he did what he had to do to win and that's his trademark," said McGihon. "It was kind of special to win both heats of the guys' 50 finals," alluding to senior teammate Todd Langland's first place swim (20.52) in the consolation final.
Henley nearly duplicated Perdew's feat in the earlier 200 individual medley. It took a national record clocking by Truman State's Kate Aherne, the two-time defending titlist in the event, to keep Henley off the top of the podium. In the end, Henley's mark of 2:02.04, although short of her personal best, was an improvement on her morning time and moved her one step up from her 2009 finish (third) in the same race.
"I'm not devastated, but I'm not elated," said Henley. "I would have liked to have gone a little faster and would have liked to have won, but it was a solid swim. From both an individual and team standpoint, we had a pretty good night and we know we have stronger events to come."
The UCSD women also put points on the board in the 1,000 freestyle, where freshman Beth Dong claimed seventh place, posting her fastest time of the year, 10:18.76. The Tritons closed out the night with a fourth place finish in the 200 medley relay, an event they won in 2009. The quartet of Anju Shimura, Mercedes O'Brien, Jessica Ferguson and Katherine Tse touched in 1:44.24. All but Tse were part of last year's foursome.
Joining Perdew and Langland in the scoring column for the Triton men were distance freestylers Jereme Barnett-Woods (9:22.71) and Chris Baier (9:24.77) who were ninth and 12th respectively in the 1,000 freestyle. Both won their heats of the timed final with Barnett-Woods registering a seasonal best and Baier clipping an incredible 19 seconds off his previous fastest time.
The evening feats helped ease the sting of a prelim disqualification for the men's 200 medley relay team. Though not a threat to win the contest, the team of Julius Espiritu, Juan Pablo Carrillo, Perdew and Langland would have certainly scored points. It was the third consecutive year that the luckless UCSD men have been DQ'd from that event.
