Results

HAYWARD - The Cal State East Bay swim team finished off the regular season with a 144-103 loss to San Jose State on Friday at Pioneer Pool. Despite the loss, the Pioneers stepped up for the Division I Spartans, posting five individual season bests and swimming well in their final meet ahead of Pacific Coast Swimming Conference Championships in just under three weeks. 

East Bay claimed victories in four races while adding top-three finishes in another eight events. Senior Erica Crain posted a pair of season bests, while Karly Wasung, Brittany Rojo and Jenel Lopez added their own best times this season to give the Pioneers five new top times for the year.

The Pioneers opened the meet with a second-place showing in the 200 medley relay. The team of Alyssa Tenney, Rachel Knowles, Caitlin DeNise and Lopez came in just two-tenths behind San Jose State's first-place squad to open the meet with four points for East Bay.

In the 1650 and 200 freestyle, the Pioneers grabbed another pair of top-three finishes, courtesy of Anna Froemming and Lopez. Froemming took third in the 1650, followed by Jenni Perez, while Lopez took third in the 200, touching the wall just over a second back of the Spartans' one-two finishers.

Tenney made it three in a row for the Pioneers, finishing third as East Bay's only competitor in the 100 back. The sophomore's pace was just one-tenth of a second off San Jose State's second-place finisher Haley Smith. Tenney also beat out SJSU's Morgan Miller by more than three seconds.

Courtney Schwiesow came within two tenths of a second of her season best is the 100 breaststroke to take fourth before Rojo snagged the Pioneers' second runner-up showing of the meet in the 200 butterfly. Rojo set a new season best, taking five-hundredths off her previous top time.

Kameron Isaacs grabbed another third-place finish for the Pioneers in a closely contested 50 free that also saw Alyssa Littlefield and Karly Wasung take fifth and sixth, respectively, less than a second behind Isaacs. Crain followed with the first of two season bests, this time in the 100 freestyle. Crain shaved nearly a tenth of a second off her previous top time, taking third in 54.79. DeNise came in just behind Crain in fourth with a time of 54.92.

The next two events saw senior Bethany Hoopman and Knowles grab another four points apiece for East Bay. Hoopman took second in the 200 backstroke before Knowles posted a runner-up finish in the 200 breaststroke. Makila Schuck also added a point for the Pioneers with her fifth-place showing in the breaststroke.

Rachel Shimizu, Hannah Cutts and Wasung swept the top three in the 500 freestyle, with Wasung posting a new season best by nearly half a second with her time of 5:23.21. Crain followed that up with her second season best of the day in the 100 butterfly and was followed by Rojo and Tenney in second and third.

In the final individual event of the day, Lopez set her own new season best in the 200 IM, taking more than a second off her previous top time in the event. East Bay finished off the meet with a one-two finish in the 200 free relay led by the team of Wasung, Isaacs, Littlefield and Rojo.

Prior to the start of the meet, the Pioneers took a moment to honor their four seniors, Crain, Bethany Hoopman, Lopez and Perez. The four have come together to help lead the team to back-to-back program-best finishes at the PCSC Championships and hold four individual school records and were part of five record-setting relay teams. Perez and Hoopman are both four-year seniors who successfully made the difficult transition from Division III to Division II competition.

East Bay now takes a break from competition to prepare for PCSC Championships in February. The Pioneers will begin competition at the conference meet on Feb. 13 at La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center in Southern California.