Swimmers excel at 50-yard events in final home meet of the season

ORANGE, Calif. – In its final home meet of the season, the Chapman University women's swim team won five events -three of which were 50 yard sprints - against Biola University, Vanguard University and Mills College on Saturday afternoon at the Allred Aquatics Center. Chapman also excelled in the diving portion of the meet as freshman Kiernan Gilbert and junior Fernanda Gallo Moreno won the 3-meter and 1-meter dive, respectively.

For the second-consecutive week, freshman Julie Case continued her assault on Chapman's all-time 500-meter freestyle record, this week finishing in first place with a time of 5:24.05, but off the record pace by two seconds. Case finished ahead of Biola's Alison Seek by nearly 15 seconds. Also in the free, Chapman took the top three spots at the 200-meter distance led by Case with a time 2:00.91. Senior Julia Fish and sophomore Amanda Morris closed out the top three with times of 2:02.91 and 2:03.19.

Chapman had the most success on Saturday going the shortest distance, winning three-of-four 50-yard races. Senior Gabby Benavidez won the backstroke in 33.88 followed by sophomore Mandy Sheehan. In the breaststroke, sophomore Sami McLaughlin finished in first at 33.25, less than a second ahead of teammate Hilary Campbell who would later win the freestyle with a time of 26.36.

The Panthers have a final tune-up against Caltech on Feb. 6 before heading to the PCSC Championships at Belmont Plaza which are in the middle of February.

by Chris Watts
Sports Information Assistant