Results

LA MIRADA, Calif. – The Cal State East Bay swim team continued its impressive run at the Pacific Coast Swim Conference (PCSC) Championships with a stellar day two that saw three team records fall, a trio of top-five finishes and several new season and lifetime bests. The Pioneers more than doubled their score from day one, shooting up the leaderboard into third place behind Fresno Pacific and UC San Diego with two days left at the meet.

The story of the night was East Bay's 800 freestyle relay performances. First, the B squad of Alyssa Tenney, Alyssa Littlefield, Kameron Isaacs and Karly Wasung came within five-hundredths of a second of the school record and won their heat. Both Isaacs and Wasung posted season-best splits in the relay, going 24.54 and 24.57, respectively, while Tenney claimed her first sub-24 split this season with a 23.99, the fastest 50 on the B team.

Not to be outdone, the A squad not only crushed the school record for the event, clocking a 1:34.28 in the championship final, but also recorded the fifth-best time in Division II so far this season. Brittany Rojo, Caitlin DeNise, Erica Crain and anchor Jenel Lopez went toe-to-toe with No. 3 UC San Diego, finishing just six-tenths of a second back to place second and claiming a win over No. 14 Simon Fraser by more than a second. The performance also came within a second of the NCAA Championships A standard, which will likely be enough to send the Pioneer 800 free relay squad to NCAA Championships in Birmingham, Ala., in March.

“There were some remarkable things this evening,” Head Coach Ben Loorz said. “This team has an indomitable spirit and they aren't scared of any goal or any team.”

The Pioneers came through in the relay even after several top-notch performances both finals and prelims on Thursday. Lopez finished off her second straight day of stellar swims with a 23.03 split in the 800 relay, while both Crain and DeNise also came in with splits under 24 seconds in the relay, all of which helped the A squad top last year's school record performance by more than three seconds.
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'The individual times were great today but you get to the end of the night and you have to see if you're ready to get up and do it all again in the relay,” Loorz said. “Tonight, we were eight-for-eight. Across the board, our 200 free relay swimmers were up for the challenge.”

Seven of the eight 800 free relay competitors also reached the finals of the 50 freestyle on Thursday. With two Pioneers in each of the top four finals, East Bay had six scoring sprinters in the finals of the 50 free. During prelims, Lopez broke her own record from last season's championships, while DeNise was just off from that pace. Rojo and Crain came close to 24-flat in the prelims to reach the B Final, while Wasung and Isaacs both reached the C Final and Littlefield and Jasmine Stowers grabbed spots in the D Final.

Lopez and DeNise returned in the A Final during the evening session ready to go again, with the pair dueling with the Tritons' Olivia Fountain and Katherine Tse and Alaska Fairbanks' All-American Bente Heller for the top five spots. Lopez shaved another three-tenths of a second off her record from the morning to finish with a personal best of 23.66, just .15 back of Fountain in first and six-hundredths off Tse's pace in second place to grab her second piece of hardware of the meet after last night's 800 free relay showing. Meanwhile, DeNise was busy taking a tenth of a second off her morning time, also coming in under the program record with a 23.81 to finish fifth in a tight race that saw the top 10 places decided by less than half a second.

In the B Final, Rojo set a new lifetime best of 24.06 to finish third in the heat and 11th overall, while Crain finished eighth in the heat with a time of 24.29. Wasung and Isaacs claimed fifth and seventh, respectively, in the C Final, while Littlefield – competing with Stowers for a spot on the 800 free relay team – posted a lifetime best in the D Final, taking nearly four-tenths off her prelim time to finish third in her heat. All told, the Pioneer 50 freestylers totaled 85 points for East Bay on Thursday.

The Pioneers also had four reach the finals in the 200 IM on day two, led by Rachel Knowles' A Final appearance. During prelims, Knowles broke Tenney's school record in the event, posting a lifetime best 2:09.59 to reach the championship final. Meanwhile, Tenney and senior Bethany Hoopman both came in under 2:12 in the prelims to reach the B Final, with Hoopman posting a new lifetime best with a 2:11.49. Finally, Makila Schuck set a new season best in the prelims, tying with Olivet Nazarene's Melissa Wright for the final spot in the C Final to force a swim-off with Wright. Competing just after the completion of the 50 free prelims, Schuck turned it on, taking two seconds off her prelim time to beat out Wright and earn a spot in the finals with a new lifetime best.

In the finals, Schuck continued her hot streak, kicking things off with a fourth-place finish in the C Final thanks to her second new lifetime best in as many swims, posting a 2:12.77 to take another two seconds off her previous time. The B Final saw Tenney steal back her school record, topping Knowles' prelim time almost a second to finish third in the heat with a time of 2:08.75. Hoopman maintained her 2:11 time, finishing eighth in the B Final at 2:11.57. Knowles also remained steady, placing eighth in the A Final in 2:09.71.

Prior to the 200 IM, Hannah Cutts set the tone for finals with a spectacular performance in the 500 freestyle B Final. After posting a prelims time of 5:12.59, Cutts came out fast and steady in the finals, blowing away the competition in her heat with a 5:03.72 to finish just three-tenths off the school record and finish ninth overall. Cutts was fast enough in the final that her time, a new lifetime best, was the fourth fastest across all three 500 free finals. Rachel Shimizu joined Cutts in the B Final, finishing seventh and maintaining her prelims time with a 5:14.08.

“Bethany and Rachel in the IM, Jasmine and Kameron in the 50 free and Rachel in the 500 really raced hard but kind of went unnoticed today,” Loorz said. “They all held steady and maintained their times from the morning session. I am really proud of the people who had to work harder for it tonight. They didn't slow down and didn't slip and came through with great swims in the finals.”

The Pioneers also got quality swims from Anna Froemming and Jenni Perez in the 500 prelims. Though both finished outside the C Final, Froemming took 13 seconds off her season best with a 5:24.78 in her prelim, while Perez, swimming the final 500 of her East Bay career, set a new season best as well with a 5:26.2 in the prelims.

Cal State East Bay will open the third day of the 2013 PCSC Championships with the prelims for the 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 free, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke in the morning session. The evening session on Friday will feature the finals of those events along with the 400 medley relay. The prelims are set to start at 9 a.m. at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center. Updated results can be found throughout the meet here.