2023 Triton Invitational
- Friday, January 20, 2023
- La Jolla, Calif.
- SCY (25 yards)
- Results
Courtesy: Cal Athletics
In La Jolla, the Bears defeated host UC San Diego and UNLV in the Triton Invitational at the Canyonview Aquatic Center. Cal finished with 698.9 points, followed by the Rebels with 657.8 and the Tritons in third at 644.7.
Cal had individual wins from Michael Petrides, Luca Pusateri Gissendaner, and Spencer Daily. Petrides was victorious in the 500 free with a season-best time of 4:23.64. Gissender won the 50 breast with a time of 24.71. Daily won the 100 fly with a season-best time of 47.47.
Cal was also victorious in the 200 medley relay, the quartet of Kai Crews, Gissendaner, Daily, and Colby Hatton finished with a time of 1:26.61.
UP NEXT
The Bears will be off until Friday, Feb. 3 when USC comes to Spieker Aquatics Center.
Courtesy: UNLV Athletics
LA JOLLA, Calif (UNLVRebels.com) – Behind nine event wins and 28 top-5 finishes, the UNLV men’s swimming team swam to a second-place finish Saturday at the Triton Invitational hosted by UC San Diego at Canyonview Aquatic Center.
The Rebels ended the meet with 657.80 points, edging the host UCSD in third place with 644.70 points. They were topped only by No. 2 Cal in first place with a final tally of 698.90 points.
REBELS OF THE MEET:
*Sophomore Adnan Beji went a perfect 3-0 in his events, including victories in the 50 breast (24.71), 100 breast (53.13) and 100 IM (50.9).
*Joining Beji with another perfect individual day, senior Panos Bolanos won his 100 back (47.10) and 200 free (1:37.80) races.
THE RUNDOWN
*Contributing to the individual win column, super senior Reece Hemmens (20.17) placed first in the 50 free. He was joined in the top 5 by a pair of his Rebel teammates as junior George Ratiu (20.58) and sophomore Bryson Huey (20.60) finished third and fourth, respectively.
*Sophomore Andrew Navarro provided a win in the 200 fly, logging a first-place time of 1:51.57. He finished over eight seconds faster than the second-place finisher Jonathan Holmberg (2:00.04) from UC San Diego.
*Ratiu tallied another pair of top-5 individual finishes in the butterfly events, coming away with a victory in the 50 fly (21.95) and a fourth-place finish in the 100 fly (48.91). Making their way to the wall within three-tenths of a second of Ratiu in the 50 fly were Huey (22.20) in second and freshman Charley Page-Jones (22.24) in third for the 1-2-3 event sweep.
*Freshman Kris Matuszewski also excelled in the 100 fly and 200 free as he gave the Scarlet & Gray second-place finishes across those events. He set a personal-best mark in the 100 fly (48.39), while swimming a 1:37.82 in 200 free to touch just after Bolanos.
*The Scarlet & Gray’s final first-place finish of the meet came via sophomore Mike Breitbart in the 200 IM as he tied with UCSD’s Nathan Lee, clocking a time of 1:50.02. Sophomore Dominik Bujak (1:50.22) rounded out the top-3 for the event, finishing just two-tenths of a second behind the top finishers.
*In the 50 breast, Breitbart tacked on a third-place finish with a time of 25.85 seconds to follow Beji, who tied for first with Cal’s Luca Gissendaner. Beji’s 50-yard split of 24.71 seconds was his fastest this season.
*Leading the charge for the Scarlet & Gray distance swimmers, senior Cam Castro cruised to a third-place finish with a season-best mark of 4:27.04. Reaching the wall two spots behind him was Navarro (4:30.75) in fifth-place.
*Junior McKay Mickelson poured in another pair of top-5 finishes in the 50 back and 100 back. He took second in the 50 back (23.65) and joined Bolanos among the top-5 finishers in the 100 back (50.40) by placing fifth.
*Notching additional top-5 finishes for the Rebels in the 100 free, Hemmens (44.57), Matuszewski (44.95), senior Steven Butler (45.73) and freshman Zsolt Szodi (46.21) placed second through fifth, respectively.
*The Rebel relay squads each cracked the top 5 in 200 medley relay, including a second-place finish (1:28.49) by their ‘A’ team (Bolanos, Beji, Ratiu, Hemmens) and fifth-place finish (1:33.89) by the ‘B’ team (Mickelson, Belflower, Page-Jones, Butler)
UP NEXT: The Rebel men and women will both return home next week for their second to last meet of the regular season when they square off in a double dual vs. UC Santa Barbara and Wyoming. The meet will take place Friday-Saturday, Jan. 27-28, at Jim Reitz Pool.
Courtesy: UCSD Athletics
LA JOLLA, Calif. – After hosting newly ranked No. 2 Cal in a dual meet on Friday, the Tritons returned to Canyonview to host No. 2 Cal and UNLV for the Triton Invitational. UC San Diego’s men’s swim team posted three notable first-place finishes from Andrija Petkovic and Nathan Lee and three second-place finishes from Ivan Kurakin, Luke Pusateri, and Jonathan Holmberg.
HOW IT HAPPENED
In the 50 yard backstroke, Andrija Petkovic took first with a time of the 22.64 and earning an auto qualification for the CSCAA NIC. In the same event, Shane Burns finished third only 0.37 seconds behind the Rebel swimmer in second. Petkovic took another first-place finish in 100 yard freestyle with a time of 43.91. Nathan Lee posted a 1:50.02 in the 200 yard IM to tie for first place. In the final split, Lee swam 0.98 seconds faster than the Rebel swimmer he tied with. In the 500 yard free, Ivan Kurakin took second with a time of 4:25.01.
Another second-place finish came from Luke Pusateri in the 100 yard IM posting a 52.63 time which earned him a bonus qualification for the CSCAA NIC. With a 2:00.04 time, Jonathan Holmberg finished second in the 200 yard butterfly for another Triton second-place finish. In the 50 yard butterfly, Chad Morrison challenged the second and third place finishers with a time of 22.85. He was only 0.61 behind third and 0.65 behind second. Morrison earned a bonus qualifying time for the CSCAA NIC.
QUOTABLE
It was a beautiful La Jolla day at Canyonview for the invitational, head coach Marko Djordjevic commented, “it was a great event and a beautiful sunny day everyone really enjoyed and as a result we had some great swimming.”
“I am very happy with the results and how the team responded to this difficult double. It’s always great to win events against very competitive squads,” he added.
UP NEXT
UC San Diego will remain in La Jolla as they host California Baptist in a dual meet at Canyonview Aquatic Center where both the men and women will compete.
