The swim team traveled to Whittier University on Nov. 8 for a dual meet. The men’s and women’s team had standout performances in spite of the men losing by 59 points and the women by two. The women’s lack of a diver proved their downfall while the men had three disqualifications that kept their score from being close.
The Eagles also lost a dual meet to Azusa Pacific University a week ago. The Eagles put up good performances in the dual meet against Whittier with four swimmers qualifying for nationals.
Junior diver Shane Brinson was one of four who qualified with a score of 221.25. Senior Christine Tixier, junior Abby Blake and freshman Samantha Dammann joined him in qualifying against Whittier with Tixier competing in the 200 breaststroke, Blake in the 200 individual medley and Dammann in the 200 butterfly. These four add to the growing list of national qualifiers for the Eagles. Senior Christine Tixier feels confident going forward this year.
“I feel like our team is very strong compared to other years,” Tixier said.
Tixier posted a time of 2:28.07 for first place in the women’s 200 yard breaststroke and freshman Lisa Tixier grabbed first in the women’s 100 yard breaststroke with 1:11.25.
“I have never been on a team that works this hard,” said freshman Samantha Dammann. She feels that the team is bound to do well with the effort they put in.
Junior Eddie Campana led the team, taking first place in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle with national qualifying times of 21.62 and 48.71 respectively. Junior Kenny Alcosiba also got first place in the men’s 200 yard individual medley by finishing with a time of 2:03.49. All in all, the Eagles took first place in 12 of the 27 races but won only one diving event out of four, a result of having only one team diver.
The team has high hopes this year as they aim to reach the top five in national rankings. Despite having one diver, the team has depth and balance in all swimming strokes, as evidenced by the women beating Whittier in nine of the 13 swimming events at the meet.
The swim team will compete next at the Soka Invitational on Nov. 15.
