The No. 12 USC swimming and diving teams make their home debuts on Friday (Oct. 21) as the men’s squad hosts Cal State Bakersfield while the women take on Florida Gulf Coast at 2 p.m. at the Uytengsu Aquatics Center.
The Trojan men will look to improve on their 2-0 record after early-season road wins at Cal Poly and UC Santa Barbara while the women’s squad (1-0) takes to the pool after a September road win at Washington State and some strong swimming last week at the SMU Classic.
SO FAR IN 2016-17
The USC women enter Friday’s meet having posted almost 20 NCAA B cuts – and one A cut – in the young season.
Freshman Louise Hansson was named CollegeSwimming.com’s Pac-12 Swimmer of the Week after her performance in Dallas in which she dropped an NCAA A cut in the 200y free in 1:43.04 and B cuts in the 200y IM (1:55.95) and 100y back (52.35). Her 200y free was within 0.51 of teammate Chelsea Chenault’s school record while her 200y IM IM was 0.60 off an A cut and her 100y back was .90 off the A standard.
She is not alone among Trojans with multiple NCAA cuts. Freshman Stanzi Moseley has B cuts in the 50y (22.83) and 100y free (49.81) while sophomore Kirsten Vose has B cuts in the 100y free (49.17), 100y breast (1:00.50) and 200y breast (2:08.94). Sophomore Riley Scott has B cuts in the 100y (1:00.28) and 200y breast (2:11.53) and the 400y IM (4:13.65). Senior Anika Apostalon swam B times in the 100y free (49.92) and the 100y back (54.97), freshman Catherine Sanchez has posted B cuts in the 100y (53.81) and 200y fly (1:58.45) and freshman Naomi Gowlett’s 1-meter (302.15) and 3-meter (287.35) efforts at SMU were both NCAA qualifying scores. Other B cuts include freshman Becca Mann in the 400y IM (2:14.68), sophomore Maddie Wright in the 200y fly (1:56.47), junior Hannah Weiss in the 100y back (54.24) and sophomore Hanni Leach in the 100y back (54.61).
Hansson has twice won the 200y free this year and the 200y IM and 100y fly once each. Sophomores Elizabeth Stinson (500y and 1000y free) and Leach (100y and 200y back) enter this weekend as USC’s other multi event winners, sweeping their events at Washington State in the season-opener.
On the men’s side, redshirt junior Dylan Carter has posted USC’s first two NCAA B cuts with a 200y free (1:37.90) and a 100y back (47.56). Carter, senior Michael Domagala and sophomore Carsten Vissering all won three races in USC’s first weekend of action.
2016-17 SEASON OUTLOOK
The Trojan women are coming off of a 2015-16 season in which they went 8-2 overall, 6-1 in conference, won their first-ever Pac-12 crown and finished sixth at the NCAA Championships.
They return five of their eight 2016 All-Americans, including senior co-captain Anika Apostalon and junior co-captain Hannah Weiss as well as senior Chelsea Chenault and sophomores Kirsten Vose and Riley Scott. Trojans appeared in 30 ‘A’ individual finals last year at the Pac-12s and swimmers and divers accounting for 22 of those swims also return. Chenault is the Pac-12’s 500y free defending champion while sophomore Elizabeth Stinson returns to defend her conference win the 1650y free. USC is also defending its Pac-12 800y free relay victory.
The USC men’s squad returns three All-Americans from last season – senior Reed Malone, junior Ralf Tribuntsov and sophomore Patrick Mulcare – off of its Pac-12 Championships second-place team that finished 9-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference. Mulcare (200y back), Tribuntsov (100y back) and Malone (200y and 500y free) as well as senior Steven Stumph (200y breast) and sophomore Dashiell Enos (3-meter) account for six returning Pac-12 titles.
Also back for the men this year are redshirt juniors and 2016 Olympians Dylan Carter (Trinidad and Tobago) and Santo Condorelli (Canada), both of whom took off the 2015-16 NCAA season to train for the Rio Games. Both are All-Americans and part of 2015 NCAA relay titles. Redshirt senior Ridge Altman, a 2015 Pac-12 finalist in the 200y breast and an NCAA Championships participant, has also returned.
The Trojan women feature 10 talented newcomers, including freshman Becca Mann, a U.S. open water national teamer, as well as Swedish Olympian freshman Louise Hansson, while the men’s team welcomes nine freshmen
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