Bevy of Invitationals Ahead for Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Swimming

By Katie Seaton, Swimming World College Intern

HONOLULU – November has been a month full of fast swimming by the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation swimming.

The conference consists of men’s teams: BYU, Hawaii and Pacific and women’s teams: UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, BYU, Hawaii, Pacific, Cal Poly, San Diego and Loyola Marymount.

The Lady Aggies continue to lead the women’s teams as does BYU’s men’s team. Both teams will take a rest week after their outstanding performances at the beginning of the month as they prepare for the Texas Invite December 4-6. Meanwhile, the rest of conference will battle out for first place this week at the Arizona Diving Invitational, Texas Diving Invitational and A3 Invitational.

Last Week

Nov. 14, Wyoming came to California and took the win over UC Santa Barbara (154-106). However, senior Katie Records is on her way to a groundbreaking season after winning and accomplishing personal bests in the 100 breast (1:03.62), 200 breast (2:18.68) and 200 IM (2:05.51). Unfortunately, Wyoming outswam the Lady Aggies in the 1000 free and butterfly events by sweeping all the top finishes. Nov., 15 Cal Poly lost to Wyoming (176-118). The meet was rough for both the Mustangs and Wyoming’s women’s team as neither of the teams witnessed many season bests. Belen Enguidanos came through for Cal Poly with a first-place finish and season best in the 200 fly with a 2:05.46.

Freshman Sage Speak also improved in the 100 breast with a 1:05.50, though she was off her best 200 breast time that she swam against fellow MPSF competitors at UC Santa Barbara. Intra-conference competition took place in Davis Nov. 15 against the Lady Cougars and the Lady Aggies who took a close win (149-140) due to their first-place finish in every single event except the three meter dive, which was swept by BYU divers Mackenzie Rands, Alexandra Tippetts and Megan Harris.

Upcoming Schedule

November 20-22: Hawaii diving at Texas Diving Invite
November 20-22: A3 Invite in East Los Angeles hosted by UC San Diego featuring Cal Poly, Cal State Bakersfield, Hawaii, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and USC’s men’s team. The women from Cal Poly, Loyola Marymount, Hawaii, San Diego and UC Santa Barbara will represent the MPSF conference against talented outside competition from USC, UCLA, SDSU, UC San Diego, Cal State Bakersfield, Fresno State and San Jose State.
November 22: Cal State East Bay at Pacific
November 21-23: BYU and UC Davis diving at Arizona Diving Invite

A3 Invite

The A3 Invite psych sheets have been posted to the Meet Mobile app. By the looks of the rankings, UCSB will be coming in strong in the 100 and 200 breast as three of the girls currently rank within the top 5 in both breaststroke events.

The Lady Aggies currently hold the fastest 200 medley relay time of the meet as well. The Rainbow Wahine will bring the Aggie’s competition in the freestyle events with Jasmine Alkhaldi, who was last years MPSF champion in the 50, 100 and 200 free. Hawaii also brought in three quick freshmen distance swimmers Kira Webster, Kira Makuta and Franziska Weidner to watch for. Sophomore Gwen Walter from San Diego will have to out swim the Hawaii women in the 500 free for a shot at a second swim in the A final.

It will be exciting to see the MPSF women’s conference finally get a chance to showcase what they have been training for during the last couple months in their battle to make it back for a final swim each night. Loyola Marymount’s women’s team may witness a win in the 100 back by senior Kjirsten Magnuson who is currently ranked second in the event and fifth among the closely seated 50 free.

Kristen Clarno, representing the Lions, is also within the top eight for the 400 IM and 200 back. San Diego’s Sarah Rierson is ranked closely above Clarno with a 2:01.75 in the 200 back, which should make for fast intra-conference competition. Freshman Sage Speak from Cal Poly will compete again against UCSB’s mass of talented breaststrokers. Last time Speak swam against the Gauchos she improved greatly and even out touched Senior breaststroker Katie Records; therefore, the 200 breast should be a close race.

Cal Poly’s Allison de Peralta also ranks high in the 200 IM with a 2:03.99, which currently has her seated third. Peralta’s teammate, Belen Enguidanos, will get the chance to race Santa Barbara’s Heren Alanis and Hawaii’s Sofija Djelic on Saturday in the 200 butterfly. The women representing the MPSF conference have their work cut out for them as their relay teams go head to head against UCLA and USC who are some of the fastest Division I women’s teams in the NCAA. Representing the MPSF conference for the men will be the Rainbow Warriors who are traveling without the top eight fastest men in their program. For a handful of the Hawaii men this will be their first meet off the island this year.

Pacific

Cal State East Bay from the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference will be racing in the Chris Kjeldsen pool on Nov 21 against Pacific’s women’s team. Of the four meets counted for, the Tigers have beat three of the teams. With the help of sophomore Margaux Verger Gourson, who continues to thrive in the 200 and 500 free after taking female athlete of the week for the week of Oct. 29 and maintaining the fastest swims this season in conference with a 200 free of 1:50.10, 500 free of 4:57.21 and 1000 free time of 10:09.63. Butterflyers Sara Nash and Roslyn Kackman, and IMer’s Cristina Mardones and Lauren Atkins, should also help secure a likely win against the Division II school.

MPSF Swimmer of the Week for November 12-November 19:

Backstrokers Hilary Hunt and Jake Taylor were awarded MPSF/TURBO swimmers of the week for their performances on Nov. 8. Although the Lady Aggies fell short to the Nevada Wolfpack, Hunt assisted the 200 medley relay and 400 free relay teams in swimming the fastest times in the MPSF this season (200 medley relay-1:44.28; 400 free relay-3:28.83). She also won the 100 back with a season best of 56.18. BYU’s Jake Taylor was awarded swimmer of the week for the second time this season after winning both the 100 back (48.16, eighth fastest time in the nation) and the 200 back (1:48.70), sealing the win against UNLV.

Katie Seaton is a freshman breaststroker at Hawaii. She graduated from Yucaipa High School in Calif., and finished as the school record holder in the 100 breast and 200 IM.

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Ashli Kessinger

9 years ago

What an informative article. Great reporting!