LONG BEACH, Calif. – The UC San Diego swimming and diving teams continued their strong showing at the PCSC Championships during day two of the event in Long Beach, with both the men and women sitting in first place. The Tritons had three student-athletes win events during the day; Danie Niculescu and Alex Henley on the women's side and Chris Baier for the men. Both the men's and women's 200 free relay teams also earned points for UCSD with runner-up finishes in their respective races. The Triton men have thus far accumulated 583 points, while the women stand at 553.
“Overall, were getting better as the meet progresses,” said head coach Scott McGihon. “We've put ourselves in position to repeat as dual champions, but we're not comfortable. There's still a lot of work ahead of us.”
For the second day in a row, Henley entered the UCSD record books with her PCSC performance, finishing first in the 200 IM with a time of 2:01.66. The mark not only broke the UCSD record entering this season by almost three seconds, but was also a new meet record and over 3.5 seconds ahead of the event's runner-up.
“Alex is a very confident athlete,” said McGihon. “She doesn't have a real weakness in the four disciplines of this race.”
Niculescu's win in the one-meter diving event was bittersweet. Despite winning the event with a score of 235.70, the senior from Winstead, Connecticut did not earn an NCAA automatic qualifying mark.
Baier did qualify for nationals with his surprising performance in the 500 free event. While he was one of five UCSD swimmers to advance to the finals of the event, he was the lowest seeded Triton entering the event. Baier improved upon his preliminary time of 4:42.08 with a final mark of 4:32.74 to earn the conference title and a national championship spot.
“Chris swam a more strategic race than he's employed in the past. He had more in the reserve for the second half of the race,” said McGihon of the junior transfer from Ventura College. “It was a very impressive finish. He stayed strong throughout.”
Kyle Begovich also earned an automatic NCAA qualifying time of 4:33.96 to place third in the 500 free, coming in just .34 seconds under the cut-off time. Both relay teams finished second, with the men notching a time of 1:21.57 and the women finishing in 1:34.08. Tritions placed second, third, and fourth in the 50 free with times of 20.30, 20.83, and 20.89 by Dan Perdew, Todd Langland, and Blake Langland, respectively.
The PCSC Championships will continue tomorrow and conclude Saturday in Long Beach.
