LA MIRADA, Calif. — The University of La Verne swimming and diving teams closed the season with a bang, breaking four school records and earning two NCAA "B" cuts on the final day of the 2016 SCIAC Swimming and Diving Championships at Splash! La Mirada Regional Aquatics Center.
The highlight of the day came from Brandon Pon, who broke two varsity records on his way to the bronze medal in the 1650 yard freestyle. The freshman touched the wall at 16:04.49, nearly 50 seconds faster than the previous mark set by Jon Jarvis in 2012 (16:53.63). He touched the 1000 yard mark at 9:42.79 to beat the old record set by Cody Yeo in 2013 (9:56.11).
Daniel Carpenter capped off his weekend by lowering his own school record in the 100 freestyle by .01 seconds. He went 46.07 in the morning prelims to top his old mark of 46.08 set at the last year's SCIAC championships and went on to place sixth in the final with a time of 46.24.
Rachel Fox, who had been impressive all week as a freshman, closed her first college season by breaking the 200 breaststroke record set by Jacqueline Rojas in 2014 (2:28.86). She broke it in the morning prelims at 2:28.70 and went on to lower it further in the final at 2:27.88, which was good for seventh overall.
Harry Bennett just missed out on the podium in the 200 breaststroke and finished fourth with an NCAA "B" cut time of 2:04.95. He earned two "B" cuts this weekend (100 breaststroke).
Karla Fuertez came a couple ticks shy of the school record in the women's mile, finishing at 18:26.73 in 11th place.
Mary Hanna came in 12th overall in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:11.97. Miranda Chavez finished 14th overall in the 200 breaststroke at 2:29.72. Kayla Yip and Krislyn Cha touched 12th (2:16.20) and 13th (2:17.14), respectively, in the 200 butterfly.
The Leopards now await offical NCAA cuts and Scott MacKay will head to Grinnell, Iowa, for NCAA Diving Regionals on Feb. 26-27.