Results
LA MIRADA, Calif. – Four days of incredible individual performances resulted in a school best fifth place finish for the Pioneer women's swim team at the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference Championships on February 11.
The Pioneers, who broke 14 school records and had 11 NCAA “B” cuts in the four-day competition, finished in fifth place with 601 points, 19 better than sixth place U.C. Santa Cruz. UC San Diego captured the conference championship.
“I'm so proud and happy for our team,” Pioneer coach
Ben Loorz said. “I'm amazed we finished fifth in the conference championships. Last year we finished in ninth place.”
Jenel Lopez broke her own school record in the 100 Yard Freestyle. Lopez finished fifth with a time of 52.18.
Jasmine Stowers had a season best time of 56.31 to finish in 35th place.
Rachel Knowles established a school record in the 200 Yard Breastroke. Knowles recorded a time of 2:24.46 to earn fifth place honors and an NCAA “B” cut.
Stephanie Lau placed 23rd with a time of 2:34.79.
A third school record was broken in the 400 Free Relay. The foursome of
Alyssa Tenney,
Sara Bonino, Knowles and Lopez were timed in 3:34.12, breaking the old school record by three seconds.
Alyssa Tenney and
Bethany Hoopman also represented East Bay extremely well in the Backstroke. Bethany dropped two seconds in the morning to make it into the “B” final. At night, she dominated the race, leading from the first dolphin kick to the last arm stroke. She dropped another full second, swimming a 2:07.74 (9th).
In the 1650 Free, Bonino knocked 20 seconds off her 2011 time in the championships. Bonino was clocked in 17:41.85, good for ninth place and an NCAA “B” cut. She reached the 1000-yard mark in 10:29, a full 10 seconds under the old school mark. Bonino was named the “East Bay Swimmer of the Meet”.
In the 200 Yard Butterfly, freshman
Madelyn Mooers had a spectacular morning swim in which she dropped 5 seconds off her in-season time (2:16.80) to earn an unexpected berth in the “B” Final. She lopped off another second-and-a-half at night (2:15.38) to earn points for 12th place.
“We prepared all season for the conference championships,” Loorz said. “Everybody stepped up and performed like champions.”
