By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
It was the last meet of the regular season for the Pepperdine women’s swim team. They wanted to go out with a bang.
The Waves faced Cal Poly San Luis Obispo is an unconventional, unscored dual meet last Saturday. The meet, which also had distance races and diving, was centered around a 50-yard freestyle sprint-off.
If the meet had been scored, Pepperdine would soundly have beaten the Mustangs. Across the pool, orange caps were touching the wall first.
“They did very well,” Head Coach Nick Rodionoff said. “This was a meet we put together just to get us ready for conference. Because of the structure of the meet, going from 32 swimmers to 16, to a final eight in the 50-yard freestyle, it gave them a feel for swimming in the prelims and then the finals.”
The meet was a good way to end a season of ups and downs.
“After a poor swim against San Diego last weekend we bounced back and swam some strong races,” Rodionoff said. “You definitely don’t want to swim badly the last meet before conference.”
Freshman Megan Kelly won the 50-yard freestyle in 24.57 seconds, just out-touching teammate freshman Nicole Okuna who finished in 24.79.
“Both girls had very, very good times, especially for this point in the season,” Rodionoff said.
Junior Erin Schindler took third for the Waves.
“It felt great to win the 50,” Kelly said. “It’s an event I haven’t had a chance to try out at all this season, so I was happy with my performance.”
Pepperdine swimmers had a chance to explore new waters: Swimming events they usually do not enter.
“I felt like we proved that we are really ready for the competition at conference,” junior Alison Reddick said. “Of course you were testing yourself, seeing how well you could do, but for many people they were swimming unfamiliar events, so it’s kind of hard to judge. Overall, it was a really fun meet.”
Captain junior Megan Melton swam a 5:22.40 500-yard freestyle to win that event and was trailed by freshman Marilyn Reddick in third.
Junior Lindsey Krusen placed second in the 400-yard individual medley. Krusen’s time was good enough to give her the fourth fastest 400-yard individual medley on Pepperdine’s “All-Time Best Times” list. Pepperdine junior Stephanie Hammond grabbed third.
Freshman Marian Roan swam to victory in the mile race, completing the 1650-yards in 19:02.14.
The divers were again a highlight of the day.
In the one-meter diving competition senior Michelle Barker dominated the event with 253.8 points. She also won the three-meter diving competition with 274.25 points. The Waves swept both diving events when sophomore Maggie Lane took second in the one-meter to Barker and sophomore Emily Andrews placed second in the three-meter competition. Freshman Gina Warren was third in both.
“The closer you get to conference, the more serious we have to be and the harder we need to work to perfect our dives,” Lane said. “We saw this meet as a practice for conference. Since Cal Poly fielded a team it really made the meet more exciting for us. It challenged us to take it all more seriously.”
The divers have won their portion of the swim meet in every dual matchup this season. They will be a force to contend with at conference.
“Our team really wants to perform to our maximum level,” Lane said. “It is our time to shine. We have a lot of talent and we’ve proven
that throughout the season so far. This is when it really counts.”
The swimmers agree.
“Hopefully we’ll perform well overall,” Reddick said. “We have strengths in all areas. We were close to first last year and we’d love to shoot for it this year.”
Pepperdine has two weeks to prepare before conference at Belmont Shores in Long Beach Feb. 20-22.
“All we’re looking for at conference is the best swim everyone can give,” Rodionoff said.
February 06, 2003