CANTON, Ohio - In his final act as a collegiate swimmer, UC San Diego senior
Daniel Perdew gave a command performance Saturday on the closing night of the NCAA Division II Swimming & Diving Championships in Canton, OH. Capturing his second individual championship of the meet and fifth of his career, Perdew stamped himself as one of the greatest Division II sprinters of all time when he scuttled an elite 100 freestyle field in 44.10 (.04 slower than his time in the morning prelims).
Perdew's swan song was just one of several big swims for Coach
Scott McGihon's squad as the Tritons rallied to grab third place in the final women's team standings and seventh on the men's side. The women compiled 318 points and the men 251. Both moved up one place from the previous night. Drury (MO) was the team champion in both divisions.
The 100 freestyle three-peat was accomplished in typical Perdew fashion-setting a breakneck pace and seeing if the opposition could deal with it.
"That's always my strategy, take it out fast and make everyone hurt," said the La Verne native, who won the 50 freestyle the first night of the competition. "This one hurt more than any other race coming home, but I knew anyone who went out with me wasn't going to have much left."
Although he had talked of breaking the national record of 43.30 that he set last year in Houston, Perdew wasn't disappointed in his final time. "I always focus on beating the people next to me-I take pride in that," said Perdew when it was over. "When it's all said and done, I don't want people to think of me as the fastest sprinter, but the best racer. That's what it's about-racing."
Sophomore Alex Henley, another Triton who knows a little about racing and winning, couldn't quite reach the winner's circle Saturday, but her school record-breaking (1:58.79) second place finish in the 200 backstroke helped spark the UCSD women into bronze medal position. With wins in the 400 individual medley and 200 butterfly already under her belt (as well as a second in the 200 IM), Henley had dead aim on No. 3, leading up to the 150-yd. mark, but just couldn't hold off defending event champion Yuan Qing Li of Drury, who got to the wall less than half a second quicker.
In program order, the Triton women also got point-scoring efforts from freshman Beth Dong (5th/1,650 freestyle/17:19.74), junior Anju Shimura, the winner of the consolation final in the 200 backstroke (2:02.16) and the hard-charging trio of senior Cari Cunningham (2:18.74), sophomore Neda Nguyen (2:19.95) and freshman Casey Adams (2:20.89), who were fifth, sixth and 12th respectively while turning in career bests in the 200 breaststroke.
Even with all of that, UCSD needed a fifth place finish from the team of Shimura, Jessica Ferguson, Amber Tan and Henley in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay (3:28.15), to stave off West Chester (PA) by 4.5 points for third place. Cunningham, one of the team's co-captains, savored the moment on both a personal and team level.
"That's been our objective-top three-and we worked so hard the last two days to get there," she said. "Having to come from behind made it more rewarding. We got down and really had to fight our way back."
The men's team got on the board early Saturday with senior Jereme Barnett-Woods (7th/15:45.05) and junior Chris Baier (15th/15:59.36) each collecting points in the 1,650 freestyle. Both scored in all three NCAA distance freestyle events. The Langland brothers ably backed up Perdew in the 100 freestyle as senior Todd claimed eighth (45.46) and sophomore Blake grabbed 13th (45.69). In the 200 breaststroke, senior Juan Pablo Carrillo finished 16th (2:10.55). Resilient freshman diver Tyler Runsten recovered from a "failed" dive on his first attempt to make the three-meter finals and eventually wind up sixth with 477.95 points. Sophomore teammate Patrick Cohen placed 13th.
Perdew nearly added an improbable capper to his legacy, teaming with both Langlands and Sam Stromberg to finish second in the last race of the Championship, the 400 freestyle relay. Sitting third following Blake Langland's third leg, Perdew nearly ran down eventual winner Wingate (NC), clocking a school standard of 2.58.49 while getting edged out of the gold by just .22 seconds.
In retrospect, McGihon gave his troops high marks.
"We got off to a slow start here, had some adversity and it would have been easy to just cash it in," said McGihon. "But this team showed a lot of fortitude and had some great efforts up-and-down the lineup tonight. I'm really pleased with how we finished."
Championship Notes
Perdew's five individual NCAA crowns leaves him third on the all-time UCSD men's list behind Travis Miller (1991-94) who posted nine and Bill Kazmierowicz who recorded seven between 1984 and '87...Miller, who won the 200 backstroke four times is the only other male swimmer to win the same NCAA event three times...One unbelievable statistic from Perdew's star-studded UCSD career-he never won a relay at the NCAA Championships.
Runsten's diving "adventures" were somewhat ironic since he actually "failed" his first dive in the prelims by doing too much-adding an extra twist...His second dive was the same as the first but with the very twist that he got marked down for on the first try..."I was shocked and furious," said Runsten, "but I new exactly what I had to do-make every single dive. I was determined to reach the finals."
The women's third place finish marked the seventh time in eight years that they have ended up in that spot...This was the third year in a row the men have been seventh.
As is NCAA Championship tradition, the Tritons were easy to spot, sporting their "Saturday night" Hawaiian attire...Before the meet, seniors from all of the participating schools were recognized on the deck...Perdew, Barnett-Woods, Carrillo, Todd Langland, Cunningham and Karla Holman represented UCSD.
