The San Diego State Aztecs completed their statement-making weekend at the A3 Invitational, hosted by UC San Diego, as they knocked off UCLA 803-655 on the women’s side of the scoring for the team title.
After a breakout year last season at NCAA’s, the Aztecs showed at this meet that they’re building the kind of depth it takes to compete with solid power-5 conference teams. In UCLA’s defense, they still have Winter Nationals and the Georgia Fall Invitational yet on their schedule this semester, and those meets are likely where their focus lies.
The men’s side of this meet went to UCSB, as they ran away from the hosts by over 400 points at the final tally.
Team Scores – Top 5
Women
1. San Diego State – 803
2. UCLA – 655
3. UCSB – 606
4. Hawaii – 468
5. San Jose State – 413
Men
1. UCSB – 1236
2. UC San Diego – 834.5
3. Cal Poly
4. Cal State – Bakersfield – 523
5. Cal Baptist – 319
The San Diego State women continue to be spurred on by their All-American sophomore Anika Apostalon, who won the women’s 100 free on the final day of this meet in 48.04. That broke both the Meet and Pool Records in the event.
Placing 2nd was Hawaii senior Jasmine Alkhaldi in 49.24. That improves her second-place ranking on Hawaii’s all-time list, ranking her behind just the great Mel Schlanger. Chelsea Bailey took 3rd for San Diego State in 49.59.
In the women’s 200 backstroke, UCLA sophomore Madison White took the win in 1:55.91 – beating out San Diego State’s Natilee Ruiz (1:57.79). For White to be that fast, if we presume she’ll be better in two weeks, is a good sign for her getting NCAA qualification out of the way early.
UCSB’s Katie Records won the women’s 200 breaststroke in 2:13.56, beating out Cal Baptist’s Alena Rumiantceva (2:14.33). Whereas all of her competitors faltered at some point on the back-half of this race, Records stayed strong through the third-and-fourth 50’s for the win. This is a pool she swims very well at – and in fact where she’s the Pool Record holder.
UCLA’s Noelle Tarazona finished the session with a 1:56.68 in the women’s 200 fly, beating out Andrea Ward (1:58.15) and Katie Grover (1:58.21). The UCLA women’s strong tradition in this event should continue for at least another four years after two freshmen went 1:58’s on Saturday.
Not surprisingly, San Diego State won the women’s 400 free relay in 3:18.03. They beat out a USC relay (the Trojans had limited entries at this meet) that took 2nd in 3:20.00 – including a 49.9 leadoff from Evan Swenson and a 49.3 third-leg from Kasia Wilk. The Trojans too have another taper meet later this fall.
On the men’s side, it was a USC relay that was the big story – the team of Santo Condorelli (42.95), Michael Domagala (43.89), David Morgan (44.24), and Dylan Carter (42.62), all of whom are just sophomores, swam to a new Meet Record of 2:53.70 in the men’s 400 free relay. That’s a fantastic early-season time, especially with such a young group, and the splits of Condorelli and Carter put them in contention for big individual points in the 100 free come March as well.
Individually, UCSB’s Wade Allen won the men’s 100 free in 44.02.
Cal Baptist’s Nikolay Klepikov just missed an automatic swim for the Division II NCAA Championships, but did win the men’s 200 breaststroke in 1:57.73.
UCSB’s Mickey Mowry swam a 1:44.84 in the men’s 200 fly, which sits just half-a-second away from his lifetime best in the event.
San Diego State isn’t getting the credit they deserve. They too went into this meet untapered and still came out with a win.