Results (PDF)

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay swim team turned in a strong performance on Saturday afternoon in a 142-116 dual meet loss at the hands of Division I squad San Jose State.

Junior All-American Madison Hauanio led the way for the Pioneers with a pair of first place finishes, and the team also secured relay victories in the 200 medley and the 200 freestyle.

"San Jose State is always a very gracious host, and we are grateful for the opportunity to race the CSU school closest to us," said head coach Ben Loorz. "They challenge us to swim outside our comfort zone in every event, and that is a great place for us to be."

Hauanio captured first place in both the 200 backstroke (2:09.42) and the 200 individual medley (2:09.14). She also swam the anchor leg of the 200 medley relay along with Mariam Lowe, Claire Beaty, and Vivy Hua. The Pioneers bested SJSU by a full second in that event with a time of 1:48.65. 

CSUEB's winning relay team for the 200 free consisted of Alyssa Littlefield, Clarisse Aguilar, Hannah Cutts, and Tiffany Wong, clocking in at 1:39.18. Cutts turned in the 50-yard fastest split of any swimmer in the race with a time of 22.24.

East Bay also claimed several second-place finishes to boost their point total, including a runner-up finish for Hauanio in the 200 freestyle. Sophomore transfer Morgan McClure, competing in her first meet as a Pioneer, played an important role as she gets back up to speed. McClure placed second in both the 200 backstroke (2:10.46) and the 200 IM (2:12.68). She took third in the 100 backstroke, out-touched by Lowe, who grabbed runner-up honors with a time of 59.51.

Senior Rachel Shimizu was typically impressive in the distance events. She notched a second place finish in the 500 freestyle with a time of 5:06.28, more than two second faster than she swam at the Christmas Invitational in December.

Freshman Courtney Nuttall paced the Pioneers in the 200 butterfly, taking second place with a time of 2:13.84. Hua, a fellow rookie, finished as runner-up in both the 50 freestyle (24.90) and the 100 freestyle (53.55). Littlefield also scored points for East Bay in those two freestyle events with third and fourth place finishes. 

Breaststrokers Claire Beaty and Makila Schuck both posted captured runner-up performances as well. Beaty swam the 200 breast in 2:25.04, falling half a second short of first place. Schuck notched a time of 1:07.44 in the 100 breast, touching the wall just three-tenths of the second after the SJSU's Taylor Solorio. 

"Claire and Makila had some of the closest races of the afternoon and really took a jump up in performance level," Loorz commented. "We saw what we needed to see from the breaststroke group today across the board, and that was exciting. Vivy continues to improve after her first dual meet win last week, and she had some excellent top-three finishes today that shows she is ready to roll with the top swimmers."

"We really showed the benefits of our holiday training today," concluded Loorz. "There were a lot of season-best dual meet swims, which is as it should be this time of year. The team stayed focused on the details, which enabled us to go head-to-head with a very strong DI team and have a lot of success."

East Bay now has just two meets left before the PCSC Championships, starting with a trip to La Mirada for dual meets against Azusa Pacific and Biola on Staurday, Jan. 16.