Toole wins SCIAC diving title, school records fall

LA MIRADA, CALIF. – Freshman diver Kellyn Toole became the first Chapman diver to win a SCIAC title with a win on the 1-meter board on day two of the SCIAC swimming & diving championships. Toole's win propelled the Chapman women's team into fourth place in the team standings.

Behind Toole's first event win, Chapman moved all the way up to fourth place in the standings with 178 points. The men's team sits in ninth with 109.5 points.

Toole entered the 1-meter diving finals as the No. 1 seed after posting the top score in yesterday's preliminary round. She bettered her score to 444.00 in finals to take home the SCIAC title. Toole joins Julie Case (1650 Free) as the only SCIAC champions in the Panthers' brief history in the conference.

School records also fell in the pool as freshmen Quinn Gates and Kristina Fong made CU history in the 50 free. Gates broke the school record in the preliminaries and qualified for finals with a 21.30. He entered finals as the ninth seed but dropped his time to 21.07 to tie for fifth.

Fong swam a school record 24.37 in prelims to record the fourth-fastest time of the morning in the women's 50 free. She later took ninth in finals but junior Martina Exlerova swam a career-best 24.70 to win the consolation final in the 50 free.

Sophomore Mary Welton made the 500 free finals and took ninth in the event, swimming a 5:12.50 in prelims and a 5:18.98 in the finals. On the men's side, freshman Connor Broughton continued an impressive first season with a seventh-place finish in the 500 free. He swam a 4:41.44 to qualify for the finals and came in at 4:41.82 in finals.

The championship continue tomorrow with the 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back and 400 medley relay. Toole will also climb up the 3-meter board for diving prelims.

by Steven Olveda
Sports Information Director