Case falls just short of school record in weekend meet

ORANGE, Calif. – Freshman Julie Case came just three tenths of a second from breaking the 500-yard freestyle school record and the Chapman University women's swimming team finished in second place in a four-team meet Saturday at the Allred Aquatics Center.

Case won the 500 free with a time of 5:22.62 which just was over two seconds ahead of second place finisher Sara Bonino from East Bay. Even more impressive was that Case nearly broke the school record of 5:22.36 set in 2004 by Kati Wise against Caltech. In the 200-yard freestyle, Case finished in third with a time of 2:00.69.

Azusa Pacific University won the overall event totaling 706 points followed by Chapman (524), Cal State East Bay (294) and SOKA University (233). Azusa Pacific swimmers won six-of-14 events on the afternoon, particularly excelling at the 100 and 200-yard distances winning the 200-yard medley relay, 200-yard freestyle, 100-yard backstroke and 100-yard freestyle. Victoria Gibb led the way for the Cougars, winning both the 100 and 200 free.

Chapman also had third place finishers in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-yard IM. Junior Amanda Thompson finished the butterfly in 1:04.02 while sophomore Amanda Morris finished the IM in 2:24.36, followed closely by junior Alex Chan at 2:24.90.

In the diving portion of the meet, freshman Kieran Gilbert won the 3-meter event, narrowly defeating APU's Elizabeth Dotson by a score of 200.95 to 196.25. Azusa Pacific however did win the 1-meter diving event with Dotson and Kassi Duncan as the top two finishers followed by Gilbert.

by Chris Watts
Sports Information Assistant