Azusa Pacific’s women’s swimming and diving team produced a balanced team effort in the victory over Biola Saturday morning.
Courtesy: Chris Baker
After their first team meet in Malibu last Saturday, the Azusa Pacific women’s swimming and diving team won their first duel of the season against Biola 120-115 Saturday morning. The Cougars only won four of the 25 total events, but their well-balanced team performanceled them to victory.
In 11 of the 25 events, the Cougars represented two of the top three finishers. Sophomore Erica Knudsen finished in first in the 50- (25.45) and 100-yard (54.76) freestyles. Junior Ingrid Cardenas and senior Lauren Turner finished in second (55.65) and third place (57.45) respectively in the 100-yard freestyle, joining Knudsen in the top three. This was the only event in which the Cougars took the top three spots.
The only other APU swimmer to land first place by herself was Cardenas, finishing atop the 200-yard freestyle at 2:01.39. Knudsen and Cardenas joined Turner and senior Tink Gibb for the final Cougar first-place finish of the duel in the 200-yard freestyle relay, in which the four swimmers participated as APU’s ‘A’ team and finished at 1:42.49.
Gibb finished in the top-three in each of the three events she participated in. Along with the first-place finish with team ‘A’ in the 200 freestyle relay, she placed second in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:00.11 and placed third in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:23.19. Turner also placed in the top-three of her three events, finishing second in the 400-yard individual medley (4:57.10) and third in the 100-yard freestyle (57.45).
Freshman Heidi Zuniga contributed by placing third in the 1000-yard freestyle at 11:31.47, third in the 100-yard butterfly at 1:02.62 and fourth in the 500-yard freestyle at 5:30.49. Sophomore Mikaela Fuller was the Cougars’ top-performer in the 1000-yard freestyle, finishing in second at 11:18.05. She finished the 500-yard freestyle in fifth place at 5:32.00 and was the first swimmer in the Cougars’ ‘B’ relay team, finishing in third place in the 200-yard freestyle relay at 1:50.69. The rest of the ‘B’ team consisted of freshmen Maureen Wolffe, Sydney Escalante and Sydney Bello.
Bello contributed in two other events: the 200- and 500-yard freestyles. She finished third in the 200 (2:02.67) and was the top Cougar performer in the 500, finishing in second place (5:23.12).
The Cougars had A and B teams in the 200-yard medley relay as well. The A team finished in second place at 1:59.45 and the B team finished in third at 2:06.96.
In the diving events, senior April Fautsch landed second place on the 1-meter board with a score of 169.30 and third on the 3-meter board with a score of 157.30. Junior Robyn Dozier finished in third place on the 1-meter board with a score of 159.70 and in second place on the 3-meter board with a score of 160.30, falling short of first place by .10 points.
The Cougars’ next meet will be next Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8 and 9 as they travel to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to participate in the Mustang Shootout.