Results: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3
LA MIRADA, Calif. -- The No. 21 Cal State East Bay swim team stayed solidly in third place in the team standings at 2017-18 Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference (PCSC) Championships following yet another historic day at Splash! Regional Aquatic Center.
Two more program records fell on Friday, as senior
Claire Beaty lowered her own mark in the 100 Breast and the quartet of
Morgan McClure, Beaty,
Allie Klinger, and
Vivy Hua broke the school record in the 400 Medley Relay, which had stood on the books for four years.
Both those events produced second-place points for the Pioneers, who now have 739 total. They're 74 points ahead of Azusa Pacific in fourth place and more than 100 points behind No. 9 Fresno Pacific for second. No. 4 UC San Diego is more than 300 points better than its closest competitor in first and appears to be headed for yet another team title.
Friday's action started with the 400 IM, and because each swimmer may only enter a certain number of events, McClure did not attempt to defend her PCSC title. But
Laurel Carpenter led the Pioneers with an outstanding time of 4:35.28 in prelims to qualify for the "A" final, where she earned eighth place points.
Miranda McDonnell also scored in that event, taking 13th place in 4:42.13.
The 100 Fly was a big scoring event for East Bay, led by Klinger with a runner-up finish in 55.22. That time ranks top-15 in the nation and should qualify her for NCAA Championships. The Pioneers qualified four swimmers into the "B" final, as
Tatum Roepke finished 10th (57.06), Hua took 12th (57.88),
Victoria Zukeran placed 14th (58.80), and
Elizabeth Cocker finished 15th (59.53).
Madison Faulkner (57.72) and
Yingfei Zhang both made the "C" final and ended up scoring 17th and 18th place points, respectively.
McClure paced the Pioneers in the next race, taking second place in the 200 Free with a time of 1:50.26. Four more CSUEB swimmers scored in the event, as
Kali Kearns finished 11th (1:53.63) and
Shelby Parker finished 14th (1:54.55) in the "B" final, followed by
Maddie Hulse in 18th (1:55.27) and
Serene Augustain in 19th (1:55.66) in the "C" final.
Beaty shaved a bit more time off the 100 Breast record that she's held for more than three years with a second-place performance in the next event. It was a tight finish, as she touched the wall just 0.36 seconds behind the winner. Zhang also scored for the Pioneers in the 100 Breast with 14th place (1:07.11).
CSUEB didn't qualify anyone into the "A" final of the 100 Back, but still managed to rack up some points in the event with McDonnell taking 11th (59.01) and Roepke finishing 12th (59.37), followed by Faulkner in 23rd (1:00.99).
The evening program closed in thrilling fashion as the 400 Medley Relay squad took second place with a school record time of 3:45.36, finishing nearly two full seconds ahead of UCSD.
There are still a lot of points yet to be won, as the conference championships conclude on Saturday with the final seven events -- the 1650 Free, 200 Back, 100 Free, 200 Breast, 200 Fly, 100 IM, and 400 Free Relay -- scheduled for morning prelims at 9:30 a.m. followed by evening finals at 4:30 p.m.
