LA JOLLA, Calif. – Hosting No. 2 Cal at Canyonview Aquatic Center, the Triton men fell to the Golden Bears 143-116 in a dual meet on Friday afternoon.
UC San Diego's men's swim squad is now 2-5 in dual meets this season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Ivan Kurakin snagged four points for the Tritons in the 200 yard freestyle as he took second place when he finished 0.37 behind the Cal swimmer in first.
Andrija Petkovic took third behind Kurakin with a time of 1:39.44. In the 100 yard breaststroke,
Luke Pusateri and
Colton Milne took second and third with quick times of 56.64 and 57.57 respectively.
Yuma Dugas and
Chad Morrison took their own second and third places in the 200 yard butterfly with times of 1:51.51 and 1:52.77, snagging seven more points for the Tritons.
Taking six points in the 50 yard freestyle, the Tritons took third, fourth, and fifth place with
Justin Morsch finishing ahead of
Aidan Rikic and
Andrew Bowman respectively. In the 100 yard freestyle, Petkovic took another four points when he finished second just 0.22 behind first. The Tritons first victory came in the 200 yard backstroke when
Nathan Lee posted a time of 1:48.21 for nine points with
Luigi Franco taking second just 0.11 seconds behind his teammate.
Shane Burns finished fourth in the event, only 0.02 seconds behind Cal in third.
Pusateri posted another second-place finish in the 200 yard breaststroke with a time of 2:03.71, milliseconds behind first. Taking first and second again in the 500 yard freestyle, Kurakin and
Devin Esser posted times of 4:32.66 and 4:34.72 respectively. Morrison and Bowman added seven points in the 100 yard butterfly when they took second and third place. Lee finished the day in the 200 yard IM with a first-place finish with a time of 1:50.82. Milne took third in the same event with a time of 1:53.91.
The Tritons finished the day in the 400 yard freestyle with a second-place finish. The team was made up of
Ryan Kirton, Morsch, Kurakin, and Petkovic, who posted a 3:01.03 time which was 0.09 seconds.
QUOTABLE
"It is an amazing experience to host, national champions team and our pool," commented head coach
Marko Djordjevic. "Our teams show that we can be competitive at highest level by scoring over 100 points. It feels great to win an event in a competition like this, but today we did even more than that. In a 1000 free we went one, two, three, and in the 500 freestyle one and two and did the same in the 200 backstroke. Along with the first and third performance in the 200 IM. It was a great day with several amazing performances."
UP NEXT
The Triton men return to Canyonview on Saturday, Jan. 21 to host Cal and UNLV for the Triton Invitational. The meet will begin at 11 am on the La Jolla campus.
About UC San Diego Athletics
After two decades as one of the most successful programs in NCAA Division II, the UC San Diego intercollegiate athletics program has begun a new era as a member of The Big West Conference in NCAA Division I. The 23-sport Tritons earned 30 team and nearly 150 individual national championships during its time in Divisions II and III and helped guide 1,400 scholar-athletes to All-America honors. A total of 83 Tritons have earned Academic All-America honors, while 38 have garnered prestigious NCAA Post Graduate Scholarships. UC San Diego scholar-athletes exemplify the academic ideals of one of the world's preeminent institutions, graduating at an average rate of 90 percent, the highest rate among public institutions in Division I or II. For more information on the Tritons, visit UCSDtritons.com or follow UC San Diego Athletics on social media @UCSDtritons.
