Panther women speed past Cal Lutheran in home opener

ORANGE, Calif. – Swimming in its first home event of the season, the Chapman University women's swimming and diving team defeated visiting Cal Lutheran University 129-104 at the Allred Pool on Saturday. The Panther men fell to Cal Lutheran 180-50 in the second SCIAC meet of the season for both squads.

The Panther women earned their first conference win of the year, thanks to a pair of relay victories and a number of season-best swims from individuals.

Senior Julie Case paced Chapman with first-place finishes in a couple of events in which she's the school's record holder: the 200-yard and the 500-yard freestyles. In the 200 free, Case completed the race in 2:02.71, nearly three seconds faster than teammate sophomore Alex Little (2:05.31) who placed second.  

Junior sprinter Kirsten Spicer earned season-best times in both of her specialty events; the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Her finish of 25.51 in the 50 free was good for second place to Cal Lutheran's Sarah Forsythe. Chapman sophomore Miranda Estrella placed third in the event with her own season-best time of 26.87 in the race. Spicer got even with Forsythe in the 100 free, placing first with a time of 56.10 – another season-best.

Estrella led a trio of Chapman women to sweep the top three spots in the 100-yard backstroke, with all three coming in under 1:08. The sophomore, who was racing in the 100 back for the first time in her career, touched the wall at 1:05.41.

In the 100-yard breaststroke, sophomore Ali Marchand earned the victory with a time of 1:15.64, followed closely by teammate freshman Olivia Valdez (1:16.63).

The Panthers' 400-yard medley (4:22.99) and 400-yard freestyle (3:50.89) relay teams also earned first place finishes to propel Chapman to the win. In the 400 free relay, it was Chapman's 'B' team of Little and freshmen Lindsey Campbell, Karli Zevalkink and Vivian Jiang that surprised 'A' teams from Chapman and Cal Lutheran to take the 11 points.

Chapman's swim and dive teams return to the pool this weekend and will host Pomona-Pitzer Colleges on Friday (diving at 3 p.m.) and Saturday (swimming at 11 a.m.) in more SCIAC competition.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Results: http://chapman.prestosports.com/sports/swimdive/2013-14/files/CLU-CU.pdf

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