IRVINE, CA., January 4. REYKJAVIK was NEVER like this.<\/p>\n
On a typically sunny, warm and smog-free January day at U Cal Irvine's outdoor Anteater Aquatics Complex during the 23rd annual Daktronics\/UCI Invitational, Irvine's Icelandic import, freshman Lara Bjargardottir, won three races and finished runner-up in a fourth to help lead her team to victory in the distance portion of the competition.<\/p>\n
Nevada-Reno, led by Alyssa Chen's four golds in the 100-200 backstrokes, 100 free and 200 IM — not to mention her runner-up finish to Bjargardottir in the 200 free — was an easy winner in the women's sprint competition.<\/p>\n
On the men's side, Irvine also won the distance portion of the competition while Texas Christian took the sprint title.<\/p>\n
The meet continues today with the relay portion of the competition.<\/p>\n
Although she was almost twice the age of most of her competitors, Masters swimmer Karlyn Pipes-Neilson, slightly to the northern side of the Big 4-0, showed her heels to the field in a pair of races — the 50 free (24.25) and the 200 fly (2:04.91) — winning the latter by more than five seconds.<\/p>\n
KPN's 50 time is a Masters 40-44 national record, breaking the old standard of 24.29 by Sandy Neilson-Bell (Munich 100 free Olympic gold-medalist) from 1996. Her fly time is about a second off her 40-44 national record from last spring's Masters Nationals. <\/p>\n
Don't be surprised if KPN not only breaks that standard this season but also the fastest Masters' 200 fly time overall. That mark is a 1:57.04 by former Chinese Olympian Limin Liu — 1999 NCAA Division 1 champ — done two years ago when Liu was competing in the 25-29 age group.<\/p>\n
* * * * *<\/p>\n
Not many Icelandic swimmers have made their presence felt in American collegiate competition. Probably the most successful was a woman breaststroker at Alabama a decade ago, Ragga Runolfsdottir, who became an NCAA finalist and All-America for the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n
UCI coach Brian Pajer will be more than delighted if Bjargardottir emulates or exceeds that high level of success. Based on her showing here — plus her performance in last month's Speedo\/UCI Invitational at Belmont Plaza, where she collected multiple golds — she's on track to make a major impact on the Anteater program and at the Big West Championships next month too.<\/p>\n
Her winning times, all done off a heavy Christmas training period, included a 1:53.19 200 to Chen's 1:53.53; a 4:28.06 400 IM (with Illinois' Trish Lakotos next at 4:35.59); and her 17:04.67 for the mile, with teammate Sernah Zavareh second.<\/p>\n
Her only loss was in the 200 breast where Illinois' Turkish Olympian, Ilkay Dikman, a Big 10 finalist, won in 2:20.17 to the Irvine ace's 2:23.27. Dikman also won the 100 breast (1:05.27).<\/p>\n
Nevada's Chen was sensational in her own right, splashing to those four golds with solid times of 2:07.52 for the 200 IM, 52.88 in the 100 free, 58.34 for the 100 back and 2:05.42 for the 200. Her teammate, Leticia Cunha, was third in the 200 free (1:54.35) and took runner-up honors in the IM (2:08.81) and third in the 200 breast (2:21.48).<\/p>\n
Former Marysville High prep All-America Sarabeth Schweitzer, now at Nevada, was second in the 100 back (59.07) and third in the 200 (2:08.38). Her 100 pr is 54.97 from the CIF-Sac Joaquin Championships several seasons ago The other sprint winner was Pepperdine's Nicole Okuna in the 100 fly (58.26),<\/p>\n
In the distance races, besides Bjargardottir's 400 IM-1650 double, San Diego State's Aztecs scored a win when Hannah Ryan won the 1000 free (10:31.48) with the Illini's Britta Jansson (10:32.55) next. In the 500, Cal State Northridge's Lindsay Love was fastest (5:06.16) and Irvine's Megan Storey (5:09.92) was a solid second with Ryan's 5:12.25 taking the sshow spot.<\/p>\n
The mile saw a one-two-three Anteater sweep, Bjargardottir taking numero uno with her 17:04, followed by Zavareh and Alexis Sheridan. <\/p>\n
* * * * *<\/p>\n
In the men's sprint competition, Cal Baptist's Felix Sutanto, an Indonesian Olympian and former Cal. state community college backstroke champoion at Golden West several seasons ago, raced to four victories: the 100-200 backstrokes, 200-400 IM plus he won a bronze in the 50 free.<\/p>\n
Sutanto was also a multi-gold medalist at last month's Speedo\/UCI invitational in Belmont Plaza and is a very talented swimmer.<\/p>\n
His winning times were 50.92 in the 100 back to TCU's Craig Chapman's 51.66; 1:51.27 in the 200 with Chapman again second (1:53.54); and 1:54.17-4:05.75 for the medleys.<\/p>\n
If Cal Baptist opts to compete in this year's NCAA Division II Championships, Sutanto could make a major impact, come home with several golds and — quite possibly — DII records too.<\/p>\n
The meet's closest finish and perhaps its most exciting race — at least on the men's side — was in the 1000 free. Here Cal. State Bakersfield's Vlasta Burda, defending NCAA DII champ in the 500-1000-1650 frees and a mainstay on Coach Bob Steele's double-defending team champ Roadrunners' program — won in 9:46.76 to teammate's Manny Colemares' 9:46.77.<\/p>\n
The latter got his gold a bit later when he won the 200 free (1:44.09). <\/p>\n
Other sprint winners included UCI's Phil Garcia in the 50-100 frees (21.45-46.19); Bakersfield's Kyle Simms in the 500 free (4:48.19); C-P's Ben Palmer in the 100 breast (58.26) with Irvine's Brian Kim gold-medalist in the 200 breast (2:08.94). Teammate Bomb Pattanasinh won the 200 fly (1:55.54).<\/p>\n
Similar to the women's 1650 finish, the men's mile saw Irvine take the first two places, with Robert Noh (16:26.30) winning over teammate Kareem Adnan (16:28.14).<\/p>\n
UCI first-year coach Pajer, himself a foremr Anteater All-America breaststroker in the mid-'80s under former coach Charlie Schober, now UCI director of aquatics, has infused a new spirit of enthusiasm and optimism on his team this season. <\/p>\n
Look for Irvine to begin putting the heat on perennial Big West powers Santa Barbara and Pacific — and perhaps even make a run for the championships — before too long.<\/p>\n
(Complete results are available at: www.uci\/edu.athletics\/swimming) <\/p>\n
— Bill Bell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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