FRESNO, Calif. – Fresno Pacific swimming and diving hit the pool this weekend with a double-dual meet with UC Santa Cruz and University of Pacific. The men and women’s outcomes were different, but both squads swam well. The women fell short in both meets losing to NCAA Div. III UC Santa Cruz 119-180 and NCAA Div. I University of Pacific 107-177. The men defeated Santa Cruz 197-101 and Pacific 172-116.
The Sunbirds claimed three of the four relays, only falling to UOP in the women’s 200 medley relay by less than a second. The Sunbird men also came up big with 1-2-3 sweeps in both the men’s 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle, as well as finishing first and second in the men’s 100 butterfly and 200 individual medley.
Cheyenne Coffman won both her events on the women’s side, taking the 100 backstroke (57.34) and 100 freestyle (53.35). The women finished the meet on a high note taking the 400 freestyle relay (3:40.38) consisting of Coffman,
Nathalie Kampen,
Brooke Turner and
Stacy Carter.
On the men’s side,
Carl Weigley led the way with three victories in the 50 freestyle (21.55), 100 freestyle (47.64) and 100 butterfly (51.52).
Seamus Alger and
Erik Thiessen both had two victories and a second-place finish apiece only losing to fellow teammates. Alger took the 200 butterfly (1:55.19) and the 200 individual medley (1:57.61) and coming in second to Weigley in the 100 butterfly (52.38). Thiessen dominated both the 100 (51.87) and 200 (1:56.63) backstrokes while finishing second to Alger in the individual medley (1:59.94).
Jared Gilbert won the 200 freestyle (1:44.40) and completed both sweeps coming in second to Weigley in the 50 (21.77) and 100 (48.22) freestyle along with third place finishes from
Joel Howard (22.04; 48.45).
Bart Kelly finished up the Sunbirds’ fourteen victories with a win in the 100 breaststroke (58.45).
“It was a big day for our guys getting two wins. Our women started a little slow, but fought back as the meet went on. Just couldn’t pull out the wins. I was proud of both our teams,” responded head coach Peter Richardson.
The men took 11 of the 14 swimming events, and only falling to Santa Cruz in the two diving events.
Coach Richardson continued, “This was a great dual meet to help us jump into our mid-season rest meet [in December].”
The Sunbirds will travel to Long Beach to participate in the Finis Cup Invitational on December 11-14. Among the strong competitors UNLV, UC Santa Barbara and Cal Poly will be competing along side the Sunbirds. The first event will begin on Friday, December 11 in the evening.