Swim breaks six school records on final day of Championships
WHITTIER, Calif. – The Chapman University men's and women's swimming and diving teams set six school records on Sunday as the 2015 SCIAC Swimming & Diving Championships concluded at Lillian Slade Aquatics Center. The Panther women finished in seventh place overall with a total of 315 points, while the men placed eighth in the conference with 238 points.
The men turned in four new records on Sunday, including breaking an 11-year old record in the 200-yard breaststroke. The longest-standing record on the books, freshman Blake Milne touched the wall in 2:16.69 in the preliminaries and then it took just a couple of hours to break the record again as he came in at 2:14.98 in the consolation finals.
From one of the oldest records to one of the newest records, freshman AJ Silva broke a three-month old record in the 200-yard butterfly, beating teammate Jonathan Lee's time with a swim of 1:58.01 in the consolation finals of the event. Silva and Lee also teamed up with freshman Kelly Huddleston and junior Tylor Sarrafzadeh in the men's 400-yard freestyle relay where the Panthers finished ninth in the finals with a Chapman-record time of 3:13.14. Leading off the event, Lee swam a school record of 47.28 in the first 100 yards to earn his third individual record of the season.
Sophomore Sam Baker set a new school mark in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:58.90 in the preliminaries, then finished 15th overall with a swim of 2:01.74 in the consolation finals.
And after placing second in the men's 1-meter springboard preliminaries on Saturday, freshman Joey Luba just missed a hotly-contested medal stand with an overall score of 477.25. The competition was so close, less than seven points separated second and fifth places in the event.
On the women's side, senior sprinter Kirsten Spicer turned in the one of the best performances of her four years on Sunday, wrapping up her career on a high note with a seventh-place finish and personal record of 53.76 in the 100-yard freestyle finals.
Spicer also anchored Chapman's record-breaking relay team in the women's 400-yard freestyle relay which placed sixth overall in the finals with a time of 3:38.95. The team included seniors Riley Ford and Emily Holmquist as well as freshman Kayla Dimicco.
In all, Chapman broke a mind-boggling 16 school records in swimming and diving over the four-day SCIAC Championships event, including 13 men's records (all five relay events).
Next up for the Panthers, Luba and Dimicco will travel to San Antonio, Texas this weekend (Feb. 27-28) for the NCAA Diving Regional Championships, hosted by Trinity University. The duo also set school records over the weekend in both the men's and women's 1-meter and 3-meter springboard events.
by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director
Chapman Men's Swimming & Diving Records
Chapman Women's Swimming & Diving Records
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