JENNA SHAY
Satff Writer
The Pepperdine women’s swim team won its third consecutive meet last weekend at the Pentathlon Event at Loyola Marymount University. Pepperdine captured the title at the Burns Aquatic Center in Los Angeles, where the Waves beat both Cal State Northridge and the hosting Lions.
The Pentathlon consisted of three competitions: sprint events, middle events and freestyle. Each competition included five races that each swimmer competed in individually. The lowest accumulative time was awarded first place.
Freshman Haley Wilson led the Waves with a first-place finish in the freestyle event with a time of 6:13.13. She clocked in at 2:09.90 in the 200 IM, fast enough to earn her the top spot in the event. She finished off her event with three second-place finishes in the 100 fly, 100 backstroke and the 100 free.
Equally impressive was Ali McLeod’s close second-place finish. Her accumulative time of 6:14.09 in the freestyle event included three first-place finishes in the 100 fly (58.71), 100 backstroke (59.35), and 100 free (53.57).
Senior Nicole Okuna finished second in the short medley pentathlon with a time of 2:56.40, while sophomore Loriann Mark finished third in the freestyle pentathlon at 15:17.83. Mark’s performance set an impressive benchmark for the rest of the season.
“Loriann swam her best time in the 500 free,” teammate Wilson said, “and at this time in the season, that is really good.”
Okuna added another win for the Waves in the 50 fly (25.34), a second-place finish in the 100 IM and a third-place finish in the 50 back. The result of the 25-free event was most impressive as the Waves demonstrated their team’s depth and consistency. Pepperdine swept the event with junior Heather Brehmer in first (11.46), senior Ketrina Lemmen in second (11.56) and junior Kacey Black in third (11.59).
The meet was helpful in preparing the Waves for their next challenge.
“Lot of girls got their personal best times,” Lemmen said. “Everyone did really well.”
As for the untimely break between this weekend’s meet and conference play in January, the Waves will not lose any ground they have already attained.
“We will all go home and swim with our clubs over break,” Lemmen said. “We have a meet before school even starts and we will definitely be in shape for that.”
The Waves will conclude their fall competition at the Speedo Cup in Long Beach, where they will face their toughest competition yet.
“This will be the fastest meet we’ll attend all year,” Lemmen said. “It will be fun for us to swim against this competition and really get prepared for conference.”
11-17-2005
