Day 2 Results

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. -- The Cal State East Bay swim team continues to maintain a commanding lead over the eight-team field at the La Verne Winter Invitational through two days of the three-day midseason meet. The Pioneers won five of the seven races on Saturday and now have 789 points, more than twice the total of the second-place teams. 

It was also an historic day for the Pioneers, as a pair of school records fell at the East Los Angeles College pool, which will also be the site of February's Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference championships. Morgan McClure shattered teammate Madison Hauanio's record in the 400 Individual Medley by nearly four seconds, and Claire Beaty topped her own program record in the 100 Breaststroke. Both juniors notched individual victories in those events. 

"What an unbelievable day we had today," said head coach Shane Pelton. "Saturday is the toughest session of the weekend, and we loaded up a lot of events to really test these women physically and mentally. The energy and atmosphere was electric tonight, and they stepped up and performed beyond expectations. From the top to bottom of this roster, every single athlete has swum phenomenally."

Beyond the two individual records, the Pioneers have showed off their tremendous depth and scoring potential over the last two days. Nearly every swimmer on the roster has posted personal best times this weekend.

They got things started with a first-place finish in the 200 Medley Relay, as Mariam Lowe, Beaty, Vivy Hua, and Shelby Parker beat Pomona-Pitzer by nearly two seconds and posted an NCAA "B" cut (1:45.20). Hua continued her phenomenal showing at ELAC with an impressive butterfly split of 25.03. East Bay's "B" relay took fourth place in the opening event to add 30 points to the team total. 

The next event was the 400 IM, which saw McClure secure the school record and notch an NCAA "B" cut with a time of 4:24.42 that currently ranks No. 4 in the nation. She won the race by more than 10 seconds. The Pioneers dominated the 400 IM as a team with six of the top 11 swimmers, as Hauanio took third (4:36.02), Laurel Carpenter finished fifth (4:40.49), Rita Gomez took sixth (4:40.52), Miranda McDonnell finished 10th (4:43.54), and Madison Chase took 11th (4:51.24).

The Pioneers didn't score quite as well in the 100 Butterfly, but they had four swimmers go under 1:00, which energized the squad. Vivu Hua led the way in fourth place (57.22), followed by Victoria Zukeran in fifth (58.15). Madison Faulkner in 11th (59.53) and Elizabeth Cocker in 14th (59.93) both had impressive swims to break the one-minute mark.

Next was the 200 Freestyle, an event in which East Bay had eight point-scorers and qualified four swimmers in the "A" final. Hauanio paced the team in third place with a time of 1:55.37. Kali Kearns finished fifth (1:57.17), followed by Parker in sixth (1:58.38) and Abigail Mitchell in seventh (1:59.30).

The next event was the 100 Breast, in which Beaty carved two tenths of a second off her pervious program mark to pace the Pioneers with first-place points. Her time is good for an NCAA "B" cut and ranks her in the top 20 in the nation. Yingfei Zheng also qualified for the "A" final, finishing fourth in 1:07.39.

McClure picked up her second victory of the day in the next event, the 100 Backstroke. She finished in 56.75, out-touching Lowe in second place (56.83). Both of those times are NCAA "B" cuts, ranking in the top 20 in Division II. McKenna Stevulak scored seventh place points with a time of 59.20, and McDonnell finished 10th in 59.91. 

The Pioneers wrapped up the evening by cruising to an eight-second victory in the 800 Free Relay, with McClure, Hauanio, Zukeran, and Kearns finishing in 7:44.19, which is the 13th-fastest time in the nation this year. McClure's lead-off split of 1:52.23 is also an NCAA "B" and ranks 18th in the country. East Bay's "B" team of McDonnell, Noelle Farrar, Faulkner, and Gomez took fifth place in the day's final race in 8:04.90.

"In all my years of coaching, this has been the best team performance I've seen at a midseason meet," Pelton said in praise of his team's showing thus far.

The Pioneers will close out the Winter Invitational on Sunday, with prelims for the final set of events in the morning and finals in the evening.