REDLANDS, Calif. – The University of Redlands Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving teams returned to competition for the first time in two months as they hosted Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (CMS) for senior day inside the Thompson Aquatics Center (TAC).
The Bulldogs honored their eleven seniors and one graduate student prior to the meet Saturday morning. The 12 Bulldogs that head coach Jonathan Champagne and assistant coach Ben Fields recognized were: Andrew Barillas (Eastvale, CA), Blake Eddow (Corona, CA), Jack Forsythe (Ladera Ranch, CA), Tom Jansen (Pleasant Hill, Calif.), Chris Loudon (Anchorage, AL), Scott Shim (Seoul, South Korea), Lucas Walker (Mountain View, CA), Leila Alejos (Portland, OR), Sydney Britton (Tacoma, WA), Sydney Cordova (Roseville, CA), Abby Dimicco (Las Vegas, NV), and Gabrielle Hayon (Agoura Hills, CA).
Following the 32 Events the Stags and Athenas topped the Bulldogs 207-84 (Men) and 237-59 (Women). Redlands posted 25 Top-3 finishes and won a pair of events. Those two wins came courtesy of Thomas Long (Brea, CA) in the 100 Free and then the Men's 200 Free Relay team of Long, Dan Bajda (Lombard, IL), Memphis Gile (Highlands, CA), and Ron Gvishi (Kiryat Tivón, Israel).
Men
The men posted 17 Top-3 finishes with the first coming in the 400 Medley Relay where Walker, Ethan Chir (Las Vegas, NV), Drew Heaston (Corona, CA), and Eddow took third place with a time of 3:36.77.
Davis Wingard (Springfield, OR) and Garrett Long (Brea, CA) followed in the 1000 Free taking second and third place respectively with times of 10:29.68 and 11:15.47.
In the 200 Free, Eddow was the runner-up, finishing with a time of 1:46.89, missing out on first by only 0.32 seconds. Eddow also had Top-3 finishes in the 100 Free (49.02) and the 200 Free Relay.
Chir took third in the 100 Back with a time of 56.51. He also held a 5.05 second cushion on fourth place. He also took third in the 200 Breast, posting a time of 2:14.10.
Cole Goyette (Rancho Cucamonga, CA) was the top Bulldog finisher in the 100 Breast, taking third with a time of 1:03.02.
The Bulldogs lone Top-3 finisher in the 200 Fly was Heaston who swam a 2:02.64. He beat out the fourth-place finisher from CMS by 2.14 seconds.
Forsythe claimed a pair of podium finishes for the Bulldogs. He was third in the 50 Free and was a part of the 200 Free Relay that took third. In the 50 Free he narrowly missed out on second place by 0.03 hundreds of a second and only 0.10 tenth of a second behind the winner.
The lone individual event win came courtesy of T. Long in the 100 Free where he swam a 48.13. He held a 0.57 margin of victory. He also was a part of the only other event win in the 200 Free Relay.
In the 200 Back Gile led the Bulldogs with a third-place finish, posting a 2:05.72.
In the 500 Free Jansen was the runner-up with a time of 4:46.71. He sat 2.91 seconds behind the winner from CMS, but easily claimed second place thanks to a 9.89 second advantage on third place.
The final two podium finishes came in the 200 Free Relay where the Bulldogs won the event and took third. The group of T. Long, Bajda, Gile, and Gvishi combined to swim a 1:29.49, beating out CMS for the win by 0.90 tenths of a second. The second relay team for the Bulldogs consisted of Forsythe, Loudon, Shim, and Eddow as they finished the third, beating out CMS for that final podium spot by only 0.10 tenth of a second, 1:32.21-1:32.31.
Women
On the women's side they came away with eight Top-3 finishes. The first of which came thanks to Lauren Kline (Lone Tree, CO) who was second in the 100 Back with a time of 1:04.67.
Morgan Felix (Burnt Hills, N.Y.) swam a 1:12.82 in a third-place finish in the 100 Back. She also added a runner-up finish in the 200 Back where she swam a 2:39.14.
As one of only two Bulldog divers competing, Sydney Patterson (Hilo, HI) took third in the 1-Meter, finishing with a score of 243.15. She also competed against the Athena divers in the 3-Meter dive, taking home third place with a score of 256.50.
First-year swimmer Fernanda Garcia (Irapuato, Guanajuato, Mexico) was the second Top-3 finisher in the 200 Back, finishing in 2:47.00.
In the 100 Fly the Bulldogs had three of the Top-5 swimmers with Abby Springer (Paso Robles, CA) as the top Bulldog coming in third with a time of 1:04.43.
The final Top-3 finish came in the 200 Free Relay where Alejos, Ashleigh Merrill (Anacortes, WA), Kline, and Hayon combined to take third with a time of 1:47.18.
The Bulldogs will have a couple of weeks off before they continue their Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) slate on Saturday, January 28 at 10:30 a.m. at Chapman University. That will be their second-to-last meet prior to the SCIAC Championships in February.