SHUHEI MATSUO
Assistant Sports Editor
The Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team ended their season with a bang at the four-day Pacific Coast Swimming Conference last week, putting an exclamation mark on a solid year by finishing fourth out of 16 teams competing with 873 total points. The three teams that finished above Pepperdine were UC San Diego, Loyola Marymount, and Northern Colorado with 1159 points, 1049.5 points, and 994 points, respectively.
“We just kept getting better every day,” said Head Coach Nick Rodionoff, referring to the four-day meet. “They really showed a lot of heart by playing so well on the last day, because by then it’s a real grind.”
Freshman Danielle Kimmel, who owns all five of Pepperdine’s all-time best times in the 100 breast, capped off her outstanding rookie season by breaking another school record. Finishing second in the 200 breast with a time of 2:22.29, she broke the record set back in 1995 by Kris Johnson with a time of 2:24.63. The only other Wave to make the top 20 in the 200 breast was Sara Kallman with a time of 2:30.83.
Three of Pepperdine’s swimmers made the top 25 in the 1650 free, with Kady Skora leading the Waves with a 10th place finish with 18:04.28, followed by Brianna Blanchard in 12th with 18:09.04 and Melissa Schmidt with a time of 18:53.23.
In the 200 fly, Loriann Mark finished in 11th place and swam a personal best with a time of 2:10.33. Jamie Lyon followed suit at 17th place with 2:12.85, with Amy Nightingale also making the top 25 with 2:16.59. Nightingale also took 12th place in the 200 back with a time of 2:11.50, followed by Lauren Meagher at 2:12.71, good for 18th place.
In the fourth and final day of the event, Pepperdine’s 400 free relay team of Danielle Kimmel, Loriann Mark, Alison Mcleod and Haley Wilson swam a combined 3:32.93, landing them fourth place and 52 points. Their finishing time was a mere three one-hundredths of a second from breaking into the Top 5 all-time best times in the event. Wilson also placed fourth in the 100 free with a time of 52.62, a personal best that scored the Waves 26 points in the competition.
In her last regular-season event of her collegiate career, senior Alison Mcleodwon won the 200 IM and also qualified for the NCA’s for her performance in the 100 fly, finishing with a time of 55.04.
In the two diving events, Lindsay Adarme and Amanda Pond placed in the top 10 for both, while Mechelle Wargo placed high in the one-meter and Sarah Towers in the three-meter.
Overall, the Waves’ swimmers broke 12 top-five, all-time best school records, and Pepperdine finished in the Top 5 for the seventh consecutive season under coach Rodioboff.
“We really did some incredible things,” Rodionoff said. “We had a lot of record-breaking performances with year, which is a good indication that things are going in the right direction.”
Rodionoff also emphasized the team’s youth. Only five of the 25 swimmers are seniors, and he said the best is yet to come for the women’s swimming and diving team.
“We don’t have many seniors, so our future really looks bright,” he said. “One thing we need to work on is our depth, and from the looks of it, we have some younger players who could very well give us that.”
02-15-2007
