M&M girls lead Chapman women in pool against La Verne

ORANGE, Calif. – Another strong effort by the Chapman University women's swimming and diving team gave the Panthers a 212-95 victory over visiting University of La Verne in a SCIAC meet at the Allred Aquatics Center on Saturday afternoon. Seniors Amanda Morris and Samantha McLaughlin put together big performances to help lead the way.

Despite a handful of second place finishes, the Chapman men fell 195-36 to La Verne.

Morris swept the 100- and 200-yard backstroke events, setting a career-best in the 100 with a time of 1:03.12, edging her previous best by .73 seconds. Her performance in the 200 was not her best of the season, but she won in convincing fashion, a full 11 seconds better than the next closest competitor.

Her teammate McLaughlin also won a pair of individual events, capturing first in the 100-yard breaststroke and 100-yard freestyle. The senior's mark of 1:10.35 in the breaststroke event was a season-best, shaving almost a full second off her previous low and winning the event by 3.08 over the second place finisher. She then took the 100 free with a time of 57.55.

McLaughlin and Morris teamed up on two big relay wins as well, setting a season-best in the 200-yard medley relay with sophomores Alex Carubis and Kirsten Spicer to earn a time of 1:56.42, less than three seconds off of their school record pace set last February.

Spicer (first leg), Morris (second), McLaughlin (third) and sophomore Riley Ford (anchor) then won the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:43.14, also a season-best for the foursome.

In the women's diving event which took place after the swim events were completed, senior Kiernan Gilbert continued to impress as one of the top divers in the SCIAC, sweeping the women's 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events. Gilbert finished the 1-meter with an overall score of 182.05 and then earned a total score of 213.80 in the 3-meter competition.

Chapman's last regular season conference meet will be Friday as the Panthers will host Caltech at the Allred Pool at 3:30 p.m. Then Chapman will look forward to the SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships, Feb. 15-20 at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Results: http://www.chapmanathletics.com/sports/swimdive/2012-13/files/ULV-CU.pdf

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