Pacific Leads San Diego State After Day One of Pacific Invitational

STOCKTON, California, October 18. THE San Diego State women’s swimming and diving squad earned victories in seven of eight events tonight during the first night of competition at the Pacific Invitational, but host Pacific still holds a slim 564-533 lead heading into tomorrow. The two teams will be joined by UC-Davis tomorrow, when the meet converts to a double dual meet format.

Pacific Press Release

Swimming their first meet of the year, the Pacific women’s team completed first day action at their own Pacific Invitational with a slight lead on San Diego State on Fri., Oct. 18. Pacific edged the Aztec on the opening day of action 564-533 as the Tigers depth showed in their home pool.

Throughout the day’s events the Tigers swam well, picking up crucial points up and down the lineup of the day’s eight events to amass their lead. Pacific’s best performance of the afternoon came from sophomore Cristina Mardones who took home a win in the 100 Breast. The second-year Tiger picked up right where she left off from her all-conference first season with a time of 1:06.78 to win by half a second.

In addition to Mardones’ victory, the Tigers grabbed second place finishes in all but one of the other seven events. While the Aztec took home wins at the top of the standings, the Tigers were able to secure the points they needed for a first half lead with strong finishes throughout the top-5 of each event raced on the day.

The two teams will race the second half of the scheduled events on Saturday, Oct. 19 while also being joined by UC Davis in double-dual meet action. The teams hit the pool for the days first events at 10:00 am. All the day’s events can be watched online for free in Pacific’s Digital Media Portal.

San Diego State Press Release

San Diego State swimmers completed the opening day of the Pacific Invitational in Stockton, Calif., by capturing seven of the eight events contested at UOP’s Chris Kjeldsen Pool Complex. The Aztecs took three of the top five places in all six individual races and two of the top three spots in both relays.

Only SDSU and Pacific had swimmers competing on the first day of the meet with UC Davis scheduled to join the Invitational for Saturday’s events.

Aztec freshman Anika Apostalon captured a pair of individual races and was a member of two winning relay teams. She swam the anchor leg of the 200 yard medley relay to open the meet and along with teammates Chelsea Bailey, Jordy Hanna and Frida Berggren turned in a winning time of 1:46.09.

Apostalon later added victories in the 50 freestyle (23.52) and 100 backstroke (56.51). Her time in the 50 free ranks as the fifth-fastest ever for an SDSU swimmer.

Berggren, a freshman from Sweden, captured the 200 freestyle in 1:52.01, a mark that was just .01 second away from being added to the all-time Aztec top 10 list. Teammate Maddy Dalcamo finished third in 1:54.66.

Mikaela Macklin, the reigning Mountain West Swimmer of the Year, got her season off to a bright start by winning the 400 individual medley in a time of 4:22.41. Newcomer Caroline Mitchell place second in 4:30.34, a mark that goes into the SDSU record book as the 10th-fastest by an Aztec.

Mitchell later captured first place in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 17:08.39, a mark that ranks as the ninth-fastest in school history. She was followed by fellow Aztecs Dana Michaels (17:44.05) and Shannon Herman (18:04.57), who finished fourth and fifth respectively.

San Diego State’s other victory came in the 400 free relay where the foursome of Apostalon, Bailey, Macklin and freshman Kate Santilena went 3:33.43.

The only race in which SDSU did not take first place was the 100 breaststroke where Hanna went 1:07.29 to place second by half a second. Macklin finished third in 1:07.69 with Emily Pleger taking fifth in 1:09.55.

Day two of the Pacific Invitational in scheduled to get underway on Saturday, Oct. 19, at 10:00 a.m.

Name*

Email*

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use