CSUB swim, dive takes win over Pomona in first meet of season
October 24, 2022
CSUB ensured their first dual meet win of the season over the Pomona-Pitzer’s Sagehens. Both the men’s and women’s teams significantly outscored the Sagehens, with the final scores being 200 to 99 for men, and 204 to 84 for women.
CSUB was able to secure first place for all but one of the 32 events that afternoon.
“This is probably the best we have looked as a team since prior to COVID.” Coach Hansen said, “There’s a maturity that’s happening that’s kind of nice.”
The meet began with the Girls 200 Yard Medley Relay, where CSUB came in first at 1 minute and 47 seconds. This event consisted of 7 lanes, with 4 swimmers per lane, and each swimmer was assigned a different stroke on their turn.
Senior Mikayla Popham, was one of the first four to start this event and was part of the winning relay.
This was not the only event that Popham came in first. She took first place in Event 5,Girls 200 Yard Freestyle, with her final time being 1 minute and 53 seconds. For this event CSUB secured first, second, and third place: Senior Popham, Mikayla; Junior, Horton, Nicole; and Senior, Marsh, Hannah.
Popham was a recurring name throughout the entirety of the event, as she participated in four events, two of which were subsequent (200 Yard Medley and Girls 200 Yard Freestyle).
With the time of 1 minute and 53 seconds for the freestyle, Popham said, “I probably did the best in the two free [200 Yard Freestyle], that’s like my favorite event… I think we did pretty good today. I think the whole team, as a whole everyone stepped up.”
Another swimmer who participated in multiple events and placed first in most was Freshman Arthur Shneider. Shneider also participated in four events that consisted of Boys 1000 Yard Freestyle, Boys 200 Yard Freestyle, Boys 500 Yard Freestyle, and Boys 400 Yard Freestyle. The Boys 1000 Yard Freestyle was the longest of the events, ranging from 9-10 minutes.
As opposed to the rest of the events that, at most, last around five minutes. Shneider won that event with a final time of 9 minutes and 37 seconds, and Pomona followed behind with a final time of 10 minutes and 2 seconds. With about four minutes in between the next event, Shneider took third place, but CSUB’s Junior, Larry Yu, won the event with 1 minute and 41 seconds.
Shneider reflects after his events, “I think it was a nice try to do a lot of events back to back like I did with the 1,000 and the two Free[style]. It was something I’ve never done before and I think I did pretty well.”
Overall, for their first dual meet, CSUB was able to come on top for the win. As for individual swimmers, CSUB’s men and women, for the most part, placed first in every event.
