Bulldog Men's Swimming & Diving Takes Fourth While Women Take Fifth in Exciting SCIAC Championship Finale

Bulldog Men's Swimming & Diving Takes Fourth While Women Take Fifth in Exciting SCIAC Championship Finale
Posted: Feb 23, 2020

With the fourth and final day of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming & Diving Championships complete, the University of Redlands men's team earned a fourth-place finish with 601 overall points, while the women took fifth with 447 points in Commerce on Sunday night.

For the men, first-year Blake Eddow (Corona CA) started the day by shaving over a minute off of his seed time to take fifth in the 1650 Free final. Sophomore Tom Jansen (Pleasant Hill, CA) also added points in the race with a seventh-place finish in 16:06.37.

Eddow added firepower to the 400 Free Relay squad of juniors Rafael Zasas (Johannesburg, South Africa), and Jack McCormick (Santa Rosa, CA), and sophomore Samuel Ayers (Orinda, CA), who snagged a spot on the podium with a second-place time of 3:03.10. The Bulldogs sat in third for most of the race, until McCormick swam the fastest leg of the race to touch the wall in second.

In a race where the top seven finishers were decided by .37 seconds, Ayers showed heart by coming back from last place at the mid-way point of the race to securing second-place points for the Bulldogs with an All-Conference time of 45.56 in the 100 Free. McCormick knocked .14 seconds off his seed-time for a ninth-place finish.

Later on in the day, junior Eric Forbes (Ladera Ranch, CA) touched the wall in ninth place of the 200 Breast with a time of 2:10.76.

The action was just as exciting on the women's side with sophomore Sydney Nakagawa (Vancouver, WA) locking down eighth place in the 200 Back final with a time of 2:06.05. In the 200 Breast finals, senior Julia Hagenbaumer (Naperville, IL) claimed fifth place with a time of 2:24.69 in her career finale, while sophomore Madison Southmayd (Anthem, AZ) and junior Olivia Cano (Dublin, CA) were close behind in seventh and eighth with times of 2:25.93 and 2:26.77, respectively.

As the action continued, sophomore Makenna Parenti (Rocklin, CA) represented the Maroon and Gray in the 200 Fly final with a ninth-place time of 2:10.23. In the final event of the Championships, Nakagawa, Cano, Parenti, and sophomore Emily Heaston (Corona, CA) stopped the clock in 3:35.82 in the 400 Free Relay finals for fifth-place points to complete the Championships.

Redlands now awaits the NCAA's announcement on possible selections to the NCAA Diving Regionals and to the NCAA Division III Championships.