Day 1 Results  |  Day 2 Results  |  Day 3 Results

MONTEREY PARK, Calif. -- The No. 21 ranked Cal State East Bay swim team turned in yet another historic performance on Day 3 of the 2017 Pacific Collegiate Swim Championships, as two more school records fell and the Pioneers captured two individual victories. Overall, the team had its best day of the four-day meet thus far, moving up from fifth to third place with 689.5 total points.

Senior Mariam Lowe had one of the most memorable days of her four-year career, and she started it on a high note leading off the first event of Friday's program, the 400 Medley Relay. Lowe broke the school record with her 100 Backstroke split of 56.57, setting the tone for an excellent relay performance. Claire Beaty, Vivy Hua, and Morgan McClure swam the last the legs, and collectively they took third place while falling just one-tenth of a second short of the program record. Their time of 3:47.03 is currently good for 10th-fastest nationally.

McClure earned a dominant victory in the next event, the 400 IM. She broke her own school record with a time of 4:21.36, and she captured an individual event championship for the second time in as many days. That time currently ranks her among the top five swimmers in the country. Sophomore Rita Gomez also qualified for the championship finals in the 400 IM, posting an impressive sixth place finish in 4:36.04

In the next event, sophomore Vivy Hua qualified for the championships finals of the 100 Fly and scored eighth place points with a time of 56.86. That was followed by the 200 Free, in which Shelby Parker turned in a strong effort to place fourth with a time of 1:56.01

The 100 Breast was an important event for East Bay's team score, as they qualified a pair of swimmers for the championship final. Claire Beaty fell just shy of her program record, touching the wall in 1:04.35 to take fourth place. Yingfei Zhang was close behind in sixth place with a time of 1:06.38.

"it was clear that the high volume of racing was catching up with Claire tonight, but she is a fighter and has been an extremely consistent performer all year," said head coach Shane Pelton. "She fought through the 100 today and nearly broke her school record, but I know the 200 will be a great race for her tomorrow."

The final event of the evening was particularly special for the Pioneers, as Lowe surprised the rest of the field in the 100 Back and became a PCSC champion for the first time in her decorated career. Lowe notched a time of 56.18 to win an extremely tight race, while fellow senior Madison Hauanio also reached the finals and scored eighth place points with a time of 57.52.

"Mariam is special and watching her have a career day is one of the reason I got into coaching," Pelton praised. "Not only did she race hard, break a school record, and win her first ever conference title, but I think she also learned a lot about herself and how mentally and physically tough she is."

After leapfrogging Pepperdine and Azusa Pacific on Friday, the Pioneers are solidly in third place heading into the meet's final day. They will look to make up some ground on No. 9 ranked Fresno Pacific, which currently sits 105 points ahead of them in second place. 

"In a conference championship meet you need the entire team to perform well, from the top to the bottom of the roster," Pelton noted. "Today we did just that. We had 16 scoring swims this morning and all of them managed to make it back in scoring positions for finals tonight. Rita and Shelby stepped up big time by both making it to their first championship finals and swimming lifetime best times."

The PCSC Championships conclude on Saturday with morning prelims and evening finals of the last seven events on the program: the 1650 Free, 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, 100 IM, and 400 Freestyle Relay.