RIVERSIDE, Calif. – In the first meet of 2025, the Pacific swimming program secured a split against California Baptist Saturday afternoon at Lancer Aquatic Center. 
 
The Tigers' men's team earned their first-ever victory over the Lancers by a score of 143-120 while the women's team battled race-to-race and narrowly fell, 133-126.
 
"What an incredible performance for the Tigers today!" head coach Katelyne Herrington said. "CBU has a strong team this year and has been the better team against us all season. Coming in as underdogs, I wanted us to put ourselves in a position for it to be a close meet and we did just that and more! Our men pulled out a huge victory and our women raced a close seven-point meet! I'm so proud of them! They came ready to race, and the results showed just that!"
 
The men's squad remains perfect on the season, improving to 4-0. Despite the closely contested loss, the women's record stands at 4-2. 
 
Junior Mattia Giurgevich played a pivotal role, helping the Tigers accumulate 18 points, which was tied for the most points among all male participants in the meet. Senior Paige Sondgeroth secured the most points of all swimmers, collecting 27 points across three events. 
 
Giurgevich earned first place in the men's 50 yard and 100 yard breast. Sondgeroth followed suit with three first place finishes in the women's 50 yard, 100 yard breast and 100 yard IM. Senior Noemi Melendez and senior Kelly Kermoian rounded out the top three in the women's 100 yard IM.
 
Freshman Javier Lopez Guillen also turned in another strong performance, notching first place in the men's 100 yard fly and second place in the men's 50 yard fly.
 
In the women's 50 yard free, freshman Lilliana Noriega earned first place in the event for the second time this season for nine points against CBU.
 
Graduate student Alex Kurotori guided Pacific by earning 17 points individually, featuring a first-place finish in the men's 100 yard back as well as a pair of second-place finishes.
 
The Tigers return home for their next four contests, beginning with a meet against Cal Poly on Friday at 3 p.m. at the Eberhardt Aquatics Center.
 
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