Results: CSEB 178, CMU 110 - F | FPU 152, CSEB 130 - F

FRESNO, Calif. – Cal State East Bay swimming split its double dual meet at Fresno Pacific on Friday afternoon with a 178-110 win over Colorado Mesa. The Pioneers were edged by the host Sunbirds 152-130 despite solid swims by several team members.

"Hannah Cutts' 1,000-yard freestyle victory was the swim of the meet," East Bay Head Coach Ben Loorz complimented. "Rachel Shimizu was our swimmer of the meet with wins in the 200 free and 500 free. She posted a great time in the 500."

Cutts outclassed the field in the 1,000 finishing more than 17 seconds ahead of the nearest competitor. Her 500-yard split of 5:18.56 was nearly identical to her finishing mark of 5:18.87 in the 500-yard freestyle race later in the meet.

Shimizu began the meet with a strong 100 freestyle anchor leg of the team's 400-yard medley relay to open Friday's competition. Her 53.31 split nearly erased nearly a two second deficit as the Pioneers were out touched at the wall for the win.

Shimizu then showcased her skill set taking the 200 free (1:55.69) by two full seconds. She was the only competitor to swim the final 100 yards in under one minute. She clocked a second place finish in the 100 free before closing out her day starting Pioneer sweep of the 500 free (5:10.83).

"Rachel crushed everyone in the 500 and was within two seconds of her lifetime best. That effort alone was reason enough to be our swimmer of the meet," Loorz added.

The theme of the day was toughness. Several swimmers gutted out victories including Cutts, Shimizu, and teammate Arolyn Basham.

"Arolyn went out strong and hung on for dear life to win (the 200-yard butterfly). It was great to see her first individual event victory as a Pioneer," said Loorz.

Alyssa Tenney won both backstroke distances edging teammate Mariam Lowe in the process. She overcame more than a full second at the halfway mark of the 200 to snag victory at the final wall.

Tenney went on to post her fastest dual meet time in the 200-yard individual medley (2:11.89) to finish second. She backed up that performance with limited rest in the following race with a 24.41 split in the 200-yard freestyle relay. It was the fastest time among all 24 competitors and one of only three sub-25 second splits.

"We expect to start swimming dual meet best times at this point of the year. A good percentage of our athletes swam faster today than they had all season," Loorz said.

The No. 25 ranked Pioneers defeated a Colorado Mesa squad which received votes in the latest national polls. Cal State East Bay and Fresno Pacific scored the same amount of swimming points (130) with the margin of defeat coming from 22 diving points earned by the Sunbirds.

Cal State East Bay will compete against its third dual meet against a Division I squad this season when it takes on Fresno State on Saturday, Jan. 10.