The three-day Christmas Invite was held in Santa Rosa and featured Cal State East Bay (women only), UC Santa Cruz, California Baptist and FPU.
Daria Belova highlighted the women’s results with a victory in the 100 butterfly at 55.62, which lowered her own school record and is a NCAA B standard qualifying mark.
Freshman Olga Melnikova also provided FPU with strong swims in the backstroke events with wins in the 100 (57.91) and 200 (2:03.25). Her mark in the 100 was fourth quickest all-time at FPU, while the 200 time was second all-time in program history and a NCAA B standard qualifying time.
Samantha Woo also finished her strong meet with a win in the 100 freestyle with a touch of 52.70.
For the men, freshman Austin Hussain won the 100 and 200 freestyle races with times of 46.23 and 1:41.31. His mark in the 200 was a NCAA B standard qualifying time. Luka Barisic followed Hussain in the 100 at 47.12 in third.
Maxim Shcherbakov continued his season-long dominance in the breaststroke events with wins in the 100 and 200. The sophomore swam 53.94 in the finals of the 100 and also lowered his school record to 53.65 in the prelims, while he finished the 200 at 1:56.95.
Wesley Coles recorded strong swims in the 100 and 200 butterfly races for FPU, as the senior placed first in the 100 with a touch of 49.91. He also placed second in the 200 at 1:50.85, good for a NCAA B standard qualifying mark.
The 200 medley relay of Barisic, Shcherbakov, Coles and Hussain earned a victory with a time of 1:30.96, which is NCAA B standard qualifying mark before the 400 freestyle relay of Hussain, Barisic, Kyle Jones and Coles finished the meet with a win at 3:05.65.
CBU won the men’s and women’s meet.
The Sunbirds are back in action against the Lancers and Concordia on Saturday, January 9 in Riverside.
Swimming news courtesy of Fresno Pacific Swimming & Diving.
