IRVINE, Calif. – Four Cougars set personal bests as the swimming and diving team kicked off its season at the PCSC Relays hosted by Concordia Irvine. The Cougars won the team event with 116 points, finishing nine points ahead of host Concordia in a four-school field.

The team as a whole had a successful day in the pool, winning seven events and earning 13 top-3 finishes. Madeline Schultz kicked things off with a blistering opening leg of 24.73 in the 200 freestyle relay; and her teammates Ellie Sivesind, Sydney Wilson, and Hannah Swailes brought the race home with a time of 1:38.36.  

The Cougars added on a 1-2 finish in both the 400 and 500 freestyle relays. Montana White pulled away on the anchor leg in the 400, swimming the final 100 yards in 51.48. That split gave her quartet (which included Sivesind, Wilson, and Schultz) the victory in the event by nearly four seconds over a second Cougar team of Swailes, Mikki Maemura, Kya Guikema, and Gillian Sato, earning 16 points towards the meet standings in the final event of the day.

White, Guikema, and Maemura combined with Aleena Herrera for the Cougars' most dominant performance of the morning, a 7:45.18 in the 800 free relay that won the event by more than half a minute. White, Guikema and Herrera also won the 1500 free relay, with White swimming the entire second half by herself in a time of 7:31.80.

Up Next: The Cougars will next hit the pool on Friday when they head to Pepperdine University in Malibu for the Rodionoff Invitational. In addition to the swimming events, this meet will kick off the season for the Cougars' diving contingent.