By Hailey Amato
Staff Writer
Nicole Okuna owns the school record in the 100-yard freestyle. She holds the five fastest times in Pepperdine swimming history in that event and has broken her own school record numerous times this season. And she is only halfway through her freshman year.
Okuna broke her own school record again Saturday when the Waves took on the University of San Diego, controlling her race in a time of 57.40 seconds. She also captured the 50-yard butterfly.
However, the Toreros won the meet 186-112. The Waves slid to 4-4 for the season in dual-meet action.
Okuna’s races were the highlights in a disappointing meet for the Waves, Head Coach Nick Rodionoff said.
“The whole concept for the season was that the swimmers get a little better every week,” Rodionoff said. “That’s what they’ve been doing all year long, but they swam so well against Cal State Northridge last week that this meet was a little bit of a letdown. Some people had standout performances, but many didn’t swim their best.”
Illness and fatigue plagued many of the Waves.
“It was not our strongest meet to date,” Lindsey Krusen said. “We’ve done better in the past. I think we’re all pretty tired right now, but we’re on the right track. We’re tapering and we’ll start getting faster.”
San Diego also boasts a competitive program.
“The competition was difficult,” freshman Chelsea Zink said. “They gave us some good races. It was a close meet though I’d say we held our own against a talented team.”
Rodionoff agrees the Toreros are a high-caliber squad.
“San Diego is very strong,” Rodionoff said. “They swim well all the time, they’re consistent. They are probably the equal of many Pacific-10 schools. But then, we can be also, if we all swim well on a given day.”
Other top performances from the Waves included rookie Ketrina Lemmen, who won her event, the 100-yard backstroke, in 1:00.45.
Freshman Lauren Velarde took second in the 200-yard breaststroke with a time of 2:29.30 seconds. She out-touched teammate junior Stephanie Hammond, who took third in the event. Hammond also grabbed points for the Waves by placing second in the 100-yard breaststroke and third in the 200-yard individual medley.
Pepperdine continued to give powerful performances in the diving portion of the meet.
“The divers were our strength in this meet,” Rodionoff said. “They continue to show their talent in every meet that they compete in.”
Senior Michelle Barker won the three-meter diving competition with 243.35 points and sophomore Emily Andrews edged out Barker to take first in the one-meter competition with 230.55 points.
Freshman Gina Warren took third in both events.
“Gina Warren had her best meet by far,” Rodionoff said. “She really took charge and did a nice job out there.”
With one more meet remaining and only a few weeks until the conference championships, the Waves are buckling down to business.
“Now it’s time to get focused for conference, to put all our energy into that,” junior captain Meghan Melton said. “We have a really strong team and we can do it.”
Having devoted their time and energy to get to this point, now the Waves just have to put on the finishing touches.
“Now we need to refine the little things,” Krusen said. “We’re all in great shape, we’ve been swimming our hardest all season. Now it’s down to the final details that we need to perfect to really stand out at conference.”
The Waves bring their dual meet schedule to a close when they face Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Saturday at noon.
January 30, 2003
