College Swimmers Post Quick Times With Conference Meets Just Around the Corner

By Emily Sampl

BOULDER, Colorado, February 2. WITH just a few weeks remaining before most college teams head off to their respective conference championships, this weekend marked one of the last opportunities to race before taper time.

Several teams expected to contend at the NCAA Championships in March were in action, posting a plethora of quality swims. Here are some highlights from the past three days:

Division I
In one of the most anticipated matchups this season, the defending National Champion Arizona Wildcats faced off against perennial power Texas in a two-day dual meet, held Friday and Saturday in Austin. The Longhorn women and Wildcat men prevailed, setting the stage for what should be two very interesting team races at NCAAs. Kathleen Hersey had an outstanding meet for Texas, winning six events over the course of the meet. Her victories came in the 100 and 200 fly, 100 and 200 back, and 200 and 400 IM. The Arizona men showed their incredible depth in overtaking the top-ranked Longhorns, jumping out to an early lead and taking eight of the first ten events on Friday. Joel Greenshields had a strong meet for the Wildcats, returning to the pool after not competing first semester.

Pac-10 powerhouses Stanford, California, UCLA and USC had busy weekends as well, with each team facing off with one or more conference opponents; Stanford's women pulled out impressive victories over USC and UCLA, while California looked strong against USC and UCLA as well. Both the men's and women's squads from Florida came out on top against SEC rival and rapidly improving Tennessee, another intriguing matchup figured to go down to the wire at SECs. Sarah Peterson (100 back, 52.81) and Jemma Lowe (200 fly, 1:53.65) posted A cuts for the Gator women, while Jonas Persson and Brad Craig posted two wins apiece for the Volunteers.

Division II
The Division II slate was rather empty this weekend; in one of very few meets involving D-II schools, Cal State-Bakersfield fell to UC-San Diego on Saturday, unable to overcome the depth of the Aggies. Henry Holmberg (1,000 free, 9:27.32 and 500 free, 4:45.08) and Stephanie Donnelly (200 back, 2:09.81 and 100 fly, 1:00.66) each won two individual events in the loss. Victoria Kreutz added two wins in the 3M (299.48) and 1M (278.55) diving competitions.

Division III
Wingate took down Lenoir-Rhyne and King College in dominating fashion on Saturday, with the women taking a 100-21 decision over Lenoir-Rhyne and a 104-18 win over King; the Wingate men topped King by a 206-33 margin.

In Swimming World's Meet of the Week, the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges edged Redlands to finish the season undefeated. Redlands' Miran Terzic posted a B cut in the men's 50 free, touching in 21.15 to win, while Nick Ostreim added an A cut in the men's 200 back (1:58.66). Annie Perizzolo and Vincent Pai both punched B cuts in the 200 breast with first place times of 2:23.29 and 2:06.03.

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