HOUSTON, Texas ? The UC San Diego swimming and diving team completed their performance at the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships on Saturday. Powered by final day repeat national championship performances from Dan Perdew and Kendall Bohn, the Tritons finished third in the women's division, with the men finishing seventh.
The women, who placed eight individuals in finals or consolation finals and broke three more school records on day four, piled up 425 points over the course of the event. The third place finish, one spot better than 2008, matched their best ever at the Division II level and fell just short of second place Wayne State's 453.50. Drury (618.5 pts.) ran away with the title.
The Triton men, hurt by a second relay disqualification in the 400 free relay Saturday morning, scored 221.5 points while equaling their placement of a year ago. The two DQs likely kept them from finishing as high as fourth. Drury, with 543 points, also won the men's team title.
“It was great to be able to be a significant contributor at the fastest D-II meet in history,” said Head Coach Scott McGihon. “We closed out the meet swimming as well as we could possibly have expected.”
Two swimmers who certainly met high expectations were Perdew and Bohn. Saturday night, both successfully defended crowns they won last year in Columbia, MO. Perdew, who earlier in the meet was nosed out in the 50 freestyle, went wire-to-wire to smoke an elite 100 freestyle field in an NCAA record 43.30.
“That was my goal at the beginning of the year?to break the national record,” said the junior from LaVerne. “But to actually do it, I can't really describe how great it feels. To win one is all you can really ask for, but to do it twice, especially for our seniors who are really my class?well, I had a lot of help on this one. I told [assistant coach] Matt [Macedo] that I was going to make everyone hurt the first 50 and see what happens coming home. I think my two strengths are speed and having what it takes to close out a race. It worked out for me tonight.”
Bohn, like Perdew came in as a favorite and had already been nosed out and relegated to runner-up in the shorter version of her specialty. There would be none of that on this night, however, as she also led block-to-wall, clocking 2:15.55 while winning the 200 breaststroke in fairly comfortable fashion. UCSD had four point-scorers in the event with freshmen Neda Nguyen (5th) and Mercedes O'Brien (11th) and junior Carianne Cunningham (13th) following Bohn.
“I have to say winning this year was more of a relief,” said the senior from Manhattan Beach. “Last year I wasn't really expecting anything, so I was really excited. This year, I was favored and wanted pretty badly to go out on a good note. I'm proud of myself and happy with the last race of my career.”
McGihon was thrilled with the accomplishments of his two stars.
“It's very difficult to repeat in anything and to have two do it on the same night, that made it extra special. Perdew getting the national record was icing on the cake,” said McGihon.
Perdew and Bohn were hardly the only luminaries for UCSD. In the women's 200 backstroke, sophomore Anju Shimura finished 4th in the school record time of 1:59.56. She erased a record set in the prelims by freshman teammate Alexandra Henley who wound up one spot behind her in the final. For the multi-talented Henley, it was her fourth individual final of the meet. Another freshman, Shea Kopp took 16th. Senior Aubrey Panis closed out her career with a 15th in the 100 freestyle (52.09).
On the men's side, junior Steven Hardy added to an already solid meet by grabbing 11th in the 200 backstroke with a personal best of 1:49.66. Juniors Elden Carpenter (2:04.13) and Juan Pablo Carrillo (2:04.53) were 11th and 12th respectively in the 200 breaststroke. Earlier in the day, senior Kneif Lohse, who racked up three school records this week, took 15th in the 1,650 freestyle (15:46.60).
In the final event of the evening, the UCSD foursome of Shimura, Shannon Simonds, Ashtyn Douglas and Errin Deters delivered a third school mark (3:24.24) while finishing third in the 400 freestyle relay.
