Stockton, Calif. - The Pacific Tigers finished up the first night of the Pacific Invitational with a strong showing across the board, coming away with victories in the Men's 400 Free Relay, the Women's 50 Free, and the Women's 100 Fly, among others. "It was a really fun first night," said Coach Peter Richardson. "We swam really well, there were a lot off things we can clean up but we got out there and raced and performed very well in front of the fans."
It was the first meet of the season for the Pacific women's team, who were anxious to get in the water. "I could tell they were all pretty pumped up and ready to go a couple meets before," said Richardson of the team. "The excitement got in front of them a little bit but we finished strong."
The night started with the 200 Medley Relay for both women and men. Pacific's team of Haley Preston, Cristina Mardones, Kenna Ramey, and Vaiva Gimbutyte came in second for the women, finishing with a time of 1:45.64. The men also finished the event in second place, with Makoa Haneberg, Yahav Shahaff, Jared Vu, and Miles MacKenzie finishing in 1:31.42. It was part of a strong showing by all of Pacific's relay teams, as the Tigers won the Men's 400 Free Relay to end the night, with Stewart Harrison, MacKenzie, Georan Meendering, and Shahaff finishing in 3:04.36. "The relay teams stepped up, I was very excited to see them going," said Richardson.
Kenna Ramey finished the night with two victories, in the 50 Free and 100 Fly, giving her a night that Richardson praised as a "very, very great accomplishment [for her]." Ramey finished the 50 Free in 23.66 and the 100 Fly in 55.88.
Harrison and Shahaff did their best to match Ramey in the Men's 50 Free, taking third and fourth with times of 21.05 and 21.20. Harrison's 21.05 was just .01 seconds behind second place.
The Tigers followed up Ramey's first-place showing in the Women's 100 Fly with second and third in the Men's 100 Fly. Haneberg took second with a time of 50.34, with Jared Vu just behind him at 50.50.
Richardson was also ecstatic about the performance of Jana Burkard in the 200 Free, where she finished with a time of 1:53.75. Burkard, usually a distance swimmer, took to the sprint with aplomb, finishing with the best time of any Tiger in the event.
The night was just the first of two straight days of swimming for the Tigers, with the Pacific Invitational starting back up tomorrow at 10:00 am with the distance events. Richardson was happy with the mood of the team, saying that "everyone's excited to swim hard" tomorrow. "We get the mile, the 400 IM, the 200 Fly, three of the more fun events, but we're treating it like a challenge," said Richardson of Saturday's slate to come. The meet will be live-streamed on the Pacific Tigers website.
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