The Pomona-Pitzer swimming and diving teams fell short on Saturday, Nov. 14 against nationally-ranked Division II powerhouse California Baptist University. Both Sagehen teams competed hard, with the men winning four events but ultimately losing by a score of 191-100, while the women’s team won three events but fell by a score of 192-104.
Swimmer Johanna Rayl PO ’15 chalked up the defeat to Cal Baptist’s excellent individual swimmers, but thought that the Sagehens' depth showed throughout the competition.
“Cal Baptist certainly provided a challenge for us,” Rayl said. “In a dual meet where there is a high premium for winning races over depth, Cal Baptist has the obvious edge. Our team is excellent in terms of depth and I think that really showed in our relay performances.”
Despite the loss, the Sagehens had some excellent performances on Saturday. The quartet of Cayla Nishizaki PZ '17, Alex Seidel PO '18, Rayl and Maddie Kauahi PZ '19 emerged victorious in the 200-yard freestyle relay with a time of 1:39.40. Nishizaki was later named the SCIAC swimmer of the week by College Swimming.
With impressive performances like this, Rayl and the Sagehen women's team were still able to take away many positives from the meet.
“Our goal for the meet was to expect fast competition and race whomever we could as individuals,” Rayl said. “Despite the overall loss, we had a lot of great performances and benefited from the chance to face tough competition. Saturday's meet was a good warm-up for the competition we'll see against CMS and at SCIACs.”
In addition, the all-first-year 400 medley relay team of Angela Ling PO '19, Mackenzie Cummings PO '19, Sarah Jin PO '19 and Kauahi was also victorious, posting the fifth-fastest time in DIII this season. The team broke its own P-P record time of 2:07.52 by three seconds. Ling followed that performance with two individual wins in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke races with times of 57.62 and 2:08.14, respectively.
Ling contributes her continued success to good coaching.
“[The] coaches are very positive and reinforcing, and really emphasize technique, which has led to impressive results,” she said.
On the men’s team, Teddy Koerner PO '19 took home two wins, one in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 58.41 and the other in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:13.51. In addition, Erik Garcia PO '19 won the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:57.97 and Adrian Hui PO '19 won the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 21.71. For his efforts, College Swimming selected Garcia as the SCIAC swimmer of the week.
In spite of the loss, both teams moved up in DIII rankings. The women’s team stands at No. 8 in this week’s poll, while the men’s team moved up to No. 20. Both teams will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 21 against California Lutheran University and the University of La Verne at 11 a.m. in Haldeman Pool. The Hens are excited for the opportunity to take on league opponents.
“We're training very well right now,” Rayl said. “Energy at practice has been outstanding and this will lead to great performances later in the season. We're all working on reminding ourselves of the small details in technique that add up to make a big difference.”