EAST LOS ANGELES, California - The Pepperdine women's swimming and diving team completed the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference championships this Saturday. They finished the meet in second place with 1311.5 points, just 43 points behind champions Cal State East Bay with 1354.5 points.
The final day of competition featured more broken school records and many outstanding performances.
Emily Morton had the first record-breaking swim in the 200 backstroke, where she broke her own record by splitting a 2:02.01 in finals which earned her 2nd place. Coming in behind Morton was
Jasmine Williams who swam a 2:05.82, earning her 5th, followed by
Trinity Ishikawa in 14th and
Megan Minor in 19th.
The next record-setting swim was the 400 freestyle relay which starred
Julianna Birlin, Williams,
Sammie Slater and
Amy Griffin, who swam a 3:28.32 which was good for 2nd place. The previous record was set just last year at 4:28.56 and included Slater and Griffin as well.
The 100 freestyle final saw five Pepperdine swimmers led by Griffin who touched in 2nd with a time of 51.87. Birlin was right behind Griffin placing 3rd followed by Slater in 6th,
Nohea Lileikis in 12th and
Paige Brackett in 20th.
The Waves had another great showing in the 200 breaststroke with
Kendall Brown placing 3rd with a 2:22.27,
Anna Riekhof in 5th and
Jenna Sanchez in 11th. The final individual event of the day was the 200 butterfly where freshman
Caroline Anderson led the way for Pepperdine, finishing in a 2:09.20, earning her 5th and
Sarah Hamilton taking 11th.
To conclude the meet, Interim Head Coach
Jana Vincent was awarded the 2020 PCSC Women's Coach of the Year. The last time a Pepperdine coach has been presented with this award was in 2009, by previous head coach
Nick Rodionoff.
The top scorers of the meet were freshmen
Julianna Birlin and
Emily Morton who each scored 79 points.
Next, the Waves will head to Cleveland State where qualifying athletes will compete in the CSCAA National Collegiate Invitational on March 12th through 14th.
