LA JOLLA, Calif. - Looking to capitalize on the momentum gained from a stellar 2010-11 season, the UC San Diego swimming and diving team opens its 2011-12 campaign Saturday as Claremont-Mudd-Scripps visits Canyonview Pool.

The Triton men head into Saturday after recording their best NCAA Division II season in 2010-11. They finished second overall at the NCAA Championships in San Antonio, Texas, and captured three individual titles. Senior Matt Herman was victorious in the 1000 and 1650 freestyle events, while sophomore Nick Korth won the 200 breastroke crown.

On the women's side, senior Alex Henley won her third career national championship as the Tritons finished third overall at the NCAAs. She successfully defended her 200 butterfly title by swimming a school-record 2:00.08 in the finals. Henley, who will serve as a team captain this year, posted school-record times in a total of four events throughout last season.

UCSD has had a couple of unofficial warm-ups already this season with its annual Blue vs. Gold and alumni meets. Henley and Korth each won three individual events at the Blue vs. Gold, while several other Tritons had multiple wins as well. Senior Blake Langland picked up victories in the 50 and 100 freestyles, sophomore Alex Merrill topped the fields in the 200 free and 400 free, sophomore Emily Adamczyk won the 150 breaststroke and 300 IM and sophomore Martin Vanek took the 150 backstroke and 300 IM.

Saturday will also serve as the official debut of new UCSD head swimming and diving coaches Corrie Falcon and Matt Macedo. The former Triton assistant coaches were elevated to head positions in late August when Scott McGihon retired after 13 years at the helm.

"I'm excited to kick off our season Saturday," said Macedo. "We were very happy with our results at the Blue vs. Gold meet, which we think of as a "warm-up" to prepare for the season. Our divers are healthy, so we're excited to see what they can do and although the swimmers are coming off of seven hard weeks of training, we're expecting some fast times."

UCSD opened its 2010-11 season against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at home as well. The men's contingent beat the Stags by a score of 215-84 and the women topped the Athenas, 191-104. The Tritons swept all but one individual event on both sides. Multiple winners for the women included Henley, Neda Nguyen, Anji Shakya and Amber Tan. The men got multiple wins from Patick Cohen, Herman, Langland, See Han Lee and Eric Owens.

"I'm really fired up to see the Tritons compete for the first time against outside competition," said Falcon. "We've been training very hard and I'll be interested to see how they can step up and race. These early season dual meets are great opportunities to learn how we can grow and prepare for the championship phase of our season."

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, a Division III team out of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), won its season opener last week against Puget Sound and Whitworth in Washington.

Saturday's action gets underway at noon and admission is free for everyone. For directions to Canyonview Pool, please click here.

- UCSDtritons.com -