ZACH ENGLUND
Sports Assistant
The Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team had its last dual meet of the season Saturday. Unfortunately for the Waves, it had a bittersweet ending, as they won big over Cal Poly, 94-28, but lost in the same manner to San Diego State, 86-54. With the split, the Waves finished with a 2-2 record in dual meets this season.
“January’s our struggle month,” said Head Coach Nick Rodionoff. “The kids were on break for a month, and so since then we’ve been working to regain the level of play we had before Christmas. If we swim as well as we have before the break, we’ll be fine.”
Even though the team didn’t perform as well as they would have liked, there were still some bright spots. One of the best performances of the weekend was by the 200-medley relay team of senior Alison McLeod, freshman Amy Nightingale, sophomore Haley Wilson and freshman Danielle Kimmel, whose time of 1:47.08 placed first over both opponents. The 400 free relay team of junior Loriann Mark, junior Kady Skora, freshman Brianna Blanchard and McLeod also placed first against Cal Poly, yet fell to San Diego State with a time of 3:38.19.
The best individual performance of the day was by Kimmel, who not only won the 100 breast, but her time of 1:05.99 also was the fourth-best of all-time in that event, making her, as just a freshmen, the owner of the top five times for that event. Another first-place finish over both teams in an event was by McLeod, whose time of 58:41 was enough to win the 100 back. She also captured the 100 fly with a time of 58.13, followed by teammates Nightingale and Meagher who finished second and third, respectively, in the Waves’ sweep.
Wilson also came out on top in the 200 IM with a 2:11.64 finishing time. She placed third in the 200 free against San Diego State swimming a time of 1:56.14, while that same time gave her the top honors against Cal Poly. She also finished first against the Mustangs in the 100 free.
In the diving competition, the Waves placed fairly well throughout, with their best performance coming in a sweep of the one-meter dive against Cal Poly, thanks to the first, second, and third place finishes of Lindsay Adarme, Amanda Pond, and Devyn Schumacher, respectively.
The Waves’ next swim competition is Feb. 7-10, when they compete at the Pacific Coast Swimming Conference Championships.
“This is a very good team,” he said. “There is no question that a lot of them will swim very well, but we need 20 people to swim well.”
When asked whether he thought the team had good chemistry, Rodionoff said he strongly believes in the Waves’ chemistry.
“The team chemistry is very good, and that’s huge,” he said. “The season is a long one, and the team has been very supportive of each other all season.”
02-01-2007
