Final Results (PDF)

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay swim team cruised to first place at Saturday's Bay Area Invitational at Mills College, scoring 762.5 points to beat College of Idaho, UC Santa Cruz, Mills, and conference rival Biola University. 

In their second meet of the season, the Pioneers claimed victories in 10 of the day's races, including all three relays. Seniors Madison Hauanio and Rachel Shimizu were typically impressive, and freshman Ryleigh Weight turned in an outstanding performance to earn unofficial "Swimmer of the Meet" honors, as voted on by her teammates. 

"Our times were generally faster than at this meet a year ago," said head coach Ben Loorz. "Our relay times in particular were far superior, which is very exciting."

The foursome of Mariam Lowe, Makila Schuck, Cassidy Humphrey, and Hauanio took first place in the 400 medley relay in 4:00.09. The Pioneers also dominated both freestyle relays. Humphrey, Vivy Hua, Alyssa Littlefield, and Hauanio clocked in at 1:39.62 in the 200 free relay, while Shimizu, Weight, Jacqueline Whitehead, and Kali Kearns paced the 800 free relay in 7:59.69.

Hauanio also shined in her individual races, taking home four first-place finishes while the team boasted a second-place finisher in all four races. She captured the 100 backstroke in 58.72 and the 200 backstroke in 2:05.50, edging out Lowe in both races. She out-touched Littlefield in the 50 freestyle by six-tenths of a second with a time of 24.12, and she bested Humphrey for top honors in the 100 butterfly with a time of 58.64. 

East Bay was outstanding in the distance events, as well. They notched the top five finishers in the 500 freestyle, led by Shimizu with a time of 5:08.55. She also paced the field in the team's first 1650 freestyle race of the season, touching the wall in 17:46.94 to edge out fellow senior and runner-up Hannah Cutts.

"I was pleased that we raced well across a variety of events today, both long and short," Loorz said. "In comparison with our competition, our breaststroke and I.M. were a little flat. But our sprinting was much sharper, highlighted by Madison's 51.70 split on the end of the 400 Medley Relay, and we are currently enjoying an explosion of depth in the butterfly events."

Senior Arolyn Basham took home a victory in the 200 butterfly, touching the wall with an impressive time of 2:15.46. Overall, the Pioneers had six of the top nine finishers in the 100 fly and six of the top eight swimmers in the 200 fly.

"This next week completes the first third of our season," Loorz added. "The next third, the middle, is truly the heart of our training. Our ability to make improvements, both technical and physiological, over the next eight weeks will be crucial to our end-of-season success."

Next up, the Pioneers travel out of state to compete in a pair of dual meets against conference foe Alaska on Friday, Nov. 13 and Saturday, Nov, 14.