WHITTIER, Calif. (Jan. 16, 2016) – Freshman Gemma Takahashi (San Jose, Calif. / Leland) lowered her own program record in the 100 Back as Caltech women’s swimming and diving faced Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges and Whittier College on Saturday morning. The Beavers also hosted Mills College the following day in a shortened-meet format.
Takahashi shaved almost a full second off her previous record to clock a 1:01.25, which was narrowly out-touched for first place in the meet by a CMS swimmer who placed sixth in the event at last year’s SCIAC Championships.
Freshman Brittany Percin (Moraga, Calif. / Stanford Online)claimed a pair of victories in the 200 Free and 200 Fly, chopping more than two seconds from her previous-best 200 Fly time to clock a 2:11.96, which earned her the victory by a mere .01. The rookie later edged out a trio of Poets in the 500 for maximum points in that dual meet’s scoring. The Beavers capped the day with an impressive 400 Free Relay that timed in almost 15 second quicker than the season’s previous best on Nov. 7 at 4:11.79. Junior Zofii Kaczmarek (New York, N.Y. / Stuyvesant) placed a close third on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards, coming just 7.90 points shy of second on the 3m.
The next day against Mills, Percin and Takahashi each won both their individual events and led the 200 Free Relay team to victory. Kaczmarek also took top points in the 1-meter, which was the only board contested.
Head Coach Jack Leavitt and the Beavers head to Chapman University for their final double-dual meet of the year against the Panthers and University of La Verne Leopards on Saturday, Jan. 23. Caltech closes out the regular season at home against Occidental College on Tuesday, Feb. 2.
Swimming news courtesy of Cal Tech Swimming & Diving.
