SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Entering their final stretch of events in 2014, the Azusa Pacific swimmers and divers defeated UC Santa Cruz 174-119 in a dual meet on Saturday afternoon.
It was the Cougars second dual meet win in four opportunities this season.
Complete Results (PDF)
"After a long day of travel and not ideal conditions during the meet, I'm really proud of how we competed," said head coach Tim Kyle. "I'm especially pleased with how the relay teams swam and how the divers performed."
The 200-yard medley relay team of Brooke Miller, Chandler Regan, Quinn Robertson and Erica Knudson got the meet started off well for the Cougars. The foursome won the event with a time of 1:53.35 which was over six seconds faster than UC Santa Cruz's second place time of 1:59.71. The Cougars "B" team of Anna Eckberg, Rachel Allison, Heidi Zuniga and Kaitlyn Lee nearly made the event a one-two Azusa Pacific sweep as the completed the event in 1:59.91.
Azusa Pacific swept the two relay races in the 16-event competition by winning the 400-yard freestyle race. Knudson gave the Cougars the lead during the first leg by swimming her quarter of the relay in 55.38. Alyse Darnall increased that lead by swimming her portion in 54.80. Rosalee Mira Santa Ana continued to increase the lead with a third-leg time of 55.80. Robertson finished the relay by swimming the anchor leg in 54.21. The team won with a total time of 3:40.19; nearly 17 seconds quicker than UC Santa Cruz's second-place effort.
The two relay wins were two of the 10 events Azusa Pacific had during the day.
Hailey Viehmann and Kianna Mourer each won on the diving boards. Viehmann claimed first place in the one-meter competition with a personal season best score of 254.25 with Mourer (248.75) finishing second. Mourer scored 260.75 points to win the three-meter competition and Viehmann was the runner-up by tallying 222.85 points.
Santa Ana continued her individual success by winning the 100-yard backstroke (1:01.39) and the 100-yard freestyle (54.37). The freshman has won every individual race she has entered this season.
Miller took the 1000-yard freestyle race by swimming the event in 11:00.27. Eckberg claimed the top spot in the 200-yard backstroke by touching the wall in 2:20.19.
Roberton outdueled Darnall 25.28 to 25.46 in the 50-yard competition. Sydney Bello won the day's final individual race by swimming the 400-yard IM in 4:51.48.
The squad stays local this weekend when they compete in Commerce at the three-day Winter Invitational beginning on Friday.
"We have been eyeing this weekend's meet for quite some time now," Kyle said. "This is a highly competitive meet with quite a few quality teams. I expect our hard work to translate into solid swims as everyone will be competing in their primary events."
