Cal State Bakersfield women’s swimming picked up a pair of wins over UC Santa Cruz and Fresno Pacific this weekend. They finished with 593 points to Fresno Pacific’s 570 and UC Santa Cruz’s 487.6. The Bakersfield men also swept their tri-meet competition.
Bakersfield:
women’s swimming and diving teams each earned a pair of victories in their tri-meets against UC Santa Cruz and Fresno Pacific on Saturday. Lovre Soric and Bryce Timonera led CSU Bakersfield’s men while the ‘Runner women were paced by Michaela Paige and Carlee Burks.
“Bryce and Lovre really stepped up at a crucial time to 1-2 the 100 back,” said Chris Hansen, CSUB’s Director of Swimming. “Both swam great and, at that point of the meet, it was much needed to pull ahead. Michaela and Carlee both won two events to make an easy win today. The ladies also had two relay wins, which also helped our win today.”
For the men, Soric swam his best and the team’s best time (4:37) in the 500 free on Saturday. After just a 15-minute break, the junior from Croatia came right back and won the 200 IM. “Lovre should be an inspiration to this team,” Hansen said. “He attacked every race, not to win for himself, but to win for this team.”
Hansen said he was also impressed with several other ‘Runners in Santa Cruz including sophomore Mario Vasqeuz. The native of El Centro, Calif. finished the 200 back with a strong time. “Justice Kramer, like at UCSD, attacked the 200 fly,” Hansen said of freshman. “This guy loves to race. I was also impressed with his 100 fly and 200 IM.”
Hansen also said he was impressed with diver Brayden Greenwald, and freshmen Greg Lee and Jake Chir on Saturday: “They all came to win today and the coaches were impressed.”
On the women’s side, Paige and Burks both earned multiple victories for the ‘Runners. “Nicolette Goncalves,Chrisy Vo, Paola Hernandez, Sabrina Zavala, and Dylana Milobar also all had big wins for us today,” said Hansen. “It was a bitter sweet day to see Michaela, Chrisy, and Nicolette win events in the last dual meet of their careers.”
Full results were not made available by UCSC after the meet. Results will be posted as soon as they become available.
The ‘Runner women have wrapped up their regular season and will next compete Feb. 24-27 at the WAC Championships to be held in Houston, Texas. Bakersfield’s men have one final dual, a home meet, against No. 2 Cal on Feb. 4, before joining the women in Texas.
Fresno Pacific:
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. – Fresno Pacific’s Wesley Coles and Bavindeep Basra won a combined five races as the Sunbirds competed against UC Santa Cruz and CSU Bakersfield on Saturday.
“Overall this was a fairly solid meet for us,” said head coach Josh Christensen. “The conditions weren’t ideal this weekend, but I thought we did a better job overcoming that on Saturday compared to Friday.”
Coles paced the men with two victories on the day. The senior won the 1000 freestyle (9:45.34) and the 200 butterfly (1:54.68), and took second in the 500 free (4:44.33).
“Wesley has been a workhorse the last four years,” said Christensen. “Today was his last 1000 free-200 fly-500 triple. He also kicked off the meet with the 400 medley relay. He was tough as always.”
FPU also received strong swims from freshman Austin Hussain and Maxim Shcherbakov on the day. Hussain won the 100 freestyle at 47.40 and took second in the 200 free with a touch of 1:45.33, which was just behind the winning time of 1:45.24. Shcherbakov won the 100 breaststroke (55.54), which was another B standard qualifying mark for the sophomore, and was victorious in the 200 breaststroke (2:02.87). He also finished second in the 200 IM at 1:56.89.
Both Hussain and Shcherbakov joined Coles and Luka Barisic on the 400 medley relay, which took first at 3:25.48.
For the women, Basra shined for the Sunbirds with three individual victories. The sophomore won the 200 butterfly (2:09.65), the 200 breaststroke (2:26.20) and the 200 IM (2:09.73).
“Bavi was awesome this weekend,” noted Christensen. “She’s leading vocally and by example. I couldn’t ask for a better weekend of swimming from her.”
The Sunbirds’ Olga Melnikova was also first in the 100 backstroke at 1:00.61, while Daria Belova touched first in the 100 butterfly at 57.63.
Full team scores were not made available by UCSC after the meet.
The Sunbirds will have one more meet to prep for the conference championships, as FPU hosts Senior Day at Sunnyside Aquatics Center on Saturday, Jan. 30. The dual with Biola is slated for a noon start.
Swimming news courtesy of Bakersfield and Fresno Pacific Swimming & Diving.
