Feb. 27, 2009
Results
Long Beach, Calif. - In the third day of action at the Big West Conference Championship Swimming and Diving meet, the Pacific women's team finished the day in third place with 379 total points, while the men sit in fourth of six universities with 310 points on Friday, Feb. 27.
Junior Melissa McGhee (Elk Grove, Calif.) highlighted the day's action when she outright claimed the 400 IM as the individual champ, taking the race with a time of 4:18.37, just missing out on NCAA B-Cut standards to earn a swimmer consideration for a bid to the NCAA meet in March. McGhee touched in first place ahead of UC Santa Barbara's Jessica Schwalb, who finished the event in 4:22.09. Junior KC Albiston (Salt Lake City, Utah) also pulled out a top-10 finish for the Tigers, when her 4:25.29 time gave Albiston a sixth-place finish.
Pacific just missed out on another first-place speed, as senior Jenny Lewis (Hesperia, Calif.) completed a 54.91 race in the 100 Back behind Gaucho Naomi Javanifard's 54.53. Both Lewis and Javanifard earned B-Cut standards with their times and will be considered to compete on the national level at the NCAA championships. Shortly behind Lewis, senior Jun Huang (Guanzhou, China) cruised in to a third-place, 55.80 finish. Huang barely missed the NCAA B-Cut standard by .67 seconds. Junior Devonie Migues (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.) rounded out the top five in the 100 Back, when she touched the wall in 56.49.
The Pacific women's squad next sent freshman Elena Walterman (Framingham, Mass.) into the pool and she pulled out in fifth during the 100 Fly championship heat. Walterman recorded a time of 55.31, giving Pacific 14 points in the race. Sophomore Nikki Yamamoto (Honolulu, Hawaii) touched the wall in 57.26, good for a ninth-place finish in the consolation final.
Over on the men's side, senior BJ Damazo (Paradise, Calif.) finished the event with a time of 48.40, to also put him in fifth place during the championship heat of the 100 Fly. Similarly, junior Dave Mathews (Dublin, Ireland) earned himself a fifth-place finish in the 100 Back, recording the fastest time for Pacific in the event at 50.01.
The men next placed a top-10 finisher in the 200 Free, when senior Stephen Quinn (Livermore, Calif.) closed out the event with a time of 1:39.91, to pull out a 10th-place finish in the consolation final. Senior Dave Platow (Westport, Conn.) then washed that down with a similar 10th-place finish during the consolation final of the 100 Breast in 58.28.
Lewis, Migues, Huang and senior April Woo (Honolulu, Hawaii) closed out the day in third for the Tigers in the 200 Free Relay with a time of 1:34.04. That race was indicative of the day's overall finish, as UC Santa Barbara took first place, followed by UC Davis and Pacific in third.
It was more of the same story for the men's finish in the 200 Free Relay, as sophomore Kyle Accornero (Livermore, Calif.), Mathews, Damazo and senior Justin Canty (El Cajon, Calif.) combined for a fourth-place finish in the race, behind UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine and UC Davis.
Pacific will wrap up its team season for the 2008-09 academic year during the final day of the Big West Championships, on Saturday, Feb. 28.
Day 1 Women's Big West Championship Team Results:
1. UC Santa Barbara 623
2. UC Davis 505
3. Pacific 379
4. Cal Poly 321
5. UC Irvine 272
6. Cal State Northridge 161
Day 1 Men's Big West Championship Team Results:
1. UC Santa Barbara 565.5
2. UC Davis 554
3. UC Irvine 397.5
4. Pacific 310
5. Cal Poly 248
6. Cal State Northridge 160
