Fresno State Swimming Hosts Fresno Pacific, UC Santa Cruz in Tri-Meet

Photo Credit: Fresno State Athletics

FRESNO – The Fresno State swimming and diving team earned two victories over visiting Fresno Pacific and UC Santa Cruz on Saturday in the three-team meet at Fresno State. The Bulldogs topped UC Santa Cruz 251-47 and Fresno Pacific 199-101, while Fresno Pacific topped UC Santa Cruz on both the women’s (194-100) and men’s (183-90) sides.

Fresno State Press Release

Fresno State ended its’ four-meet homestand to open the season with a pair of wins over UC Santa Cruz and Fresno Pacific in the Tri Meet at the Aquatics Center.

The `Dogs beat the Banana Slugs 251-47 and beat the Sunbirds 199-101. Fresno State swimmers and divers won 11 events on the day.

“I felt like our girls really attacked their events today,” Bulldogs head coach Jeanne Fleck said. “We came out with confidence and belief that they could do it and I think that was a big difference.”

Fresno State had two divers post qualifying scores for the NCAA Zone Meet in Colorado Springs, Colo., in March. Sophomore Shelbie Holden won both events with qualifying scores of 279.65 on the 1-meter and 313.15 on the 3-meter. Both of Holden’s scores were personal-bests. Lacie Ruth scored a 274 on the 1-meter to finish second and qualify for Zones. The score was a personal-best for the junior out of Mt. Whitney High in Visalia.

“They had had such a great invitational last weekend in Los Angeles and they used that to help them today,” Fleck said. “They got a lot of confidence from last weekend and learned a lot.”

Individual swimming event winners for the `Dogs were Hailee Baldwin (200 IM), Tarryn Rennie (100 Fly), Kelly Simmons (500 Free), Leah Hatayama (50 Free), Esme Gullick (200 Fly), Allison Short (100 Back), Casey Kennemann (200 Free), and Lucy Titchin (1000 Free).

Kennemann, a freshman from Santa Maria, Calif., swam a 1:54.23 in her 200 Free win to post a lifetime-best time by more than three seconds. Fellow freshman Short posted a personal-best time of 58.58 in her 100 Backstroke win.

Hatayama won the 50 Freestyle event for the third straight meet. Her time of 23.71 seconds was a season-best and the third-best time in school history.

Titchin, a senior from England, swam 10:34.02 in her 1000 Freestyle win to post a personal-best. Fellow countrywoman Gullick swam a season-best of 2:06.50 in her 200 Fly win.

Fresno State will be back in action starting on Thursday when they travel to Los Angeles for the A3 Performance Invitational.

Fresno Pacific Press Release

Fresno Pacific earned a pair of team wins Saturday at the dual meets hosted by Fresno State. The women defeated UC San Cruz 194-100, while the men earned a win over UCSC 183-90. The women also competed well against Fresno State but fell 199-101.

“Today was a great meet for our men,” said head coach Josh Christensen. “We’re continuing to learn and grow from the experiences we’ve had throughout the season. Our freshman are starting to put together some good races, which is exciting. On the boards, Duston Gragg continues to impress, as he broke the school record on 3-meter (327.50) and was only three points off the 1-meter record (289.30).”

The Sunbirds opened the day with a win in the 200 yard medley relay swam by Luka Barisic, Tim Ferris, Zachary Lowenstein and Marko Tanasovski with a time of 1:34.34. Alex Hussain followed with a victory two events later in the 200 freestyle with a mark of 1:44.83, to out-touch Lowenstein at 1:46.68. Lowenstein also placed first later in the day in the 100 freestyle event at 46.34 and the 100 butterfly with a time of 52.45.

Barisic continued his strong day to take first in the 100 yard backstroke with a time of 52.89, which was followed by Connor Greene winning the 100 yard breaststroke at 58.27. Barisic also took home the 200 backstroke event at 1:59.04, while Greene won the 200 breaststroke with a mark of 2:09.33 and grabbed a win in the 200 IM with a time of 1:57.85.

FPU then received a win from Wesley Coles in the 200 butterfly (1:41.72) and a second-place finish from Sonny Ford (1:57.99). Coles also placed first in the 500 freestyle race with a time of 4:48.34, while Tanasovski also earned a win in the 50 freestyle (21.85).

The day was capped off by a relay victory in the 400 freestyle event (3:13.11), swam by Tanasovski, Hussain, Coles and Greene.

“For the women, we were up against another tough, DI opponent and I was really pleased with how we raced,” said Christensen. “Our goal coming in was to win at least four events and we won five, including the opening relay. Two of those wins came from our freshman Samantha Woo and Bavindeep Basra. We had another freshman anchor our winning 200 medley relay in Olivia Hynes, which was exciting. This was the best showing we’ve ever had against Fresno State.”

The first win came in the 200 medley relay at 1:46.46. The swim was won by Katelyn Brown, Kendall Swanson, Michelle Moreno and Hynes.

Swanson earned the second victory for FPU in the 100 breaststroke at 1:03.42, more than three seconds ahead of the next finisher. Woo followed with a win in the 100 freestyle event at 53.05 and Basra took home the 200 backstroke event at 2:07.73. Swanson earned the final victory for the Sunbirds in the 200 breaststroke with a touch of 2:21.16.

“This closes out the best fall of dual meets in program history,” said Christensen. “We are swimming at a very high level right now and we continue to learn and improve week-to-week. We now have four weeks to get ready for the UNLV Invite. We’ll get some rest before that meet and hopefully put up a lot of lifetime bests.”

FPU travels to UNLV on Dec. 13-15.

Results: Fresno Pacific, UC Santa Cruz vs. Fresno State

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