MALIBU, California – The Pepperdine swimming and diving team completed its first weekend of competition this season with day two of the inaugural Rodionoff Invitational on Saturday. The Waves had the highest team score among both Division I and non-Division I schools.
MEET RECAP
The day started once again with diving.
Paulina Holmberg (Apple Valley, Minn./Academy of Holy Angels) was the top performer for the Waves with a final score of 248.45, giving her third place overall.
Lexie Martin (Keller, Texas/Keller HS) continued her strong diving this weekend with a fourth-place finish and a total score of 241.40.
In the swimming portion, the meet kicked off with the 200-yard relay which saw Pepperdine's
Jasmine Williams (Folsom, Calif./Folsom HS),
Haley Bergthold (Fairfax, Va./Woodson HS),
Emma Purdy (Truckee, Calif./Truckee HS) and
Ellie Hendren (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Mountain Vista HS) take third overall with a time of 1:50.65.
Emily Morton (Golden, Colo./Lakewood HS) earned a second-place finish in the 400-yard IM with a time of 4:37.18, one-quarter of a second off the leader.
Lexie Deitemeyer (Golden, Colo./Golden HS) took second in the 100-yard butterfly with a final time of 59.03.
Other top performances included Morton taking third in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 59.50 and
Alexandra Browne (Arlington, Va./Washington-Liberty HS) taking ninth in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 25.19.
In the last two events of the day,
Lindsay Hemming (Orinda, Calif./Miramonte HS) came in fourth in the 500-yard freestyle with a time of 5:18:14 and the 400-yard freestyle relay team of Purdy, Browne, Hendren and
Jenna Sanchez (Highland, Calif./Redlands East Valley HS) claimed second with a time of 3:37.21.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Ellie Monobe said: "It was a little bit of a slow start but then we got going.
Emily Morton's 400 IM was a great start to the season -- that's her bread and butter.
Haley Bergthold loves to race and had quite a lineup today but did very well.
Paulina Holmberg had a Pepperdine-best diving today and
Lexie Martin was right there with her. It was good to see us step up with the short practicing time that we've had and I think they have a lot more to prove.
Lindsay Hemming trains remarkably well in the 500 and we thought it would be a good fit. I think she surprised us and she surprised herself. She's gained a lot of confidence the last few days and I think she's going to be a very consistent force in freestyles moving forward.
"It's nice to see where we are with things. Hosting this invite, and hoping we can continue to host for many more years, we're able to see a lot of conference opponents so that's a nice preview for what's to come this season. Being the first meets of the year and having all these events, we've gotten to see a lot of races and scenarios for our program and now we need to clean things up and get better from here. We have a lot of depth and that's a great problem to have."
WOMEN TEAM SCORES (D1): Pepperdine 419.50, San Diego 213.50, LMU 188
MEN TEAM SCORES (D2, D3): Cal Lutheran 297.50, Biola 264.50, Concordia Irvine 197
WOMEN TEAM SCORES (D2, D3): Biola 276, Concordia Irvine 183, Azusa Pacific 148, Cal Lutheran 138
MEN TEAM SCORES (NAIA): The Master's 255
WOMEN TEAM SCORES (NAIA): Westmont 329, The Master's 314
NEXT UP: Pepperdine will head up to Northern California next weekend as the Waves have two dual meets – in Hayward on Friday afternoon to face Cal State East Bay at 3:00 p.m. and in Davis on Saturday at 10:00 a.m. to face the Aggies of UC Davis.
FOLLOW: Follow @WavesSwimDive on Facebook and Twitter for immediate updates, results and more. Go to pepperdinewaves.com for all information, releases and schedules.
