Case medals again; SCIAC Championships recap

COMMERCE, Calif. – The Chapman University men's and women's teams experienced mixed results at the 2014 SCIAC Swimming & Diving Championships at the Brenda Villa Aquatics Center over the weekend. The women finished in seventh place overall, just 4.5 points behind sixth-place University of La Verne. Meanwhile the men placed ninth (last) overall.

However, senior distance swimmer Julie Case shined once again in the championships. She put an exclamation point on her decorated career with a pair of school-record swims, medaling in both the 500-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle and earning an NCAA 'B' cut time in the latter.

After breaking her own school record in the 500-free on Friday with a time of 5:03.81, the senior took second place in the 1,650-free on Sunday – again breaking her previous school record – with a time of 17:21.74. She lost to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps junior Molly Loftus, who defeated Case by 8 seconds to unseat last year's champion in the event.

Case's 'B' cut time provisionally qualifies her for the NCAA Division III Championships, but she would only receive an invite to compete should the championship field not be filled by 'A' cut swimmers.

Case was also the Panthers' best in the 200-yard freestyle on Saturday, placing sixth in the finals with a time of 1:55.62. Her finish was just a second slower than her school record time she set at the SCIAC Championships last March.

She will graduate quite possibly as the best freestylist in school history; a record-holder in four individual events (200-, 500-, 1,000- and 1,650-freestyle), as well as two relays (400- and 800-freestyle).

The Chapman men were highlighted by diver Bobby Herrman who established school records in 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events. The senior placed fifth overall in the 3-meters on Thursday with an 11-dive score of 414.0 and then followed that up with a sixth-place finish in the 1-meter on Saturday. His 11-dive overall score of 367.35 was also a Chapman record.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

Complete championships results: http://gocaltech.com/sports/swimdive/2013-14/releases/2014SCIACChampionships

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