CLAREMONT, Calif. — The University of La Verne swimming and diving teams posted arguably their best-ever showing at the annual Pomona-Pitzer Relays on Saturday at Haldeman Pool.
The women finished third as a team with five top-five finishes and claimed the team's first-ever win at the meet, which features traditional and unconventional relay events.
The win came in the 3x100 yard breaststroke relay. The trio of Rachel Fox, Miranda Chavez and Krislyn Cha combined to win the race with a time of 3 minutes, 36.38 seconds, beating a Whittier gropu by more than a full second.
Cha was involved in all five of the women's top-five finishes. The senior was a part of La Verne's third-place 400 individual medley relay team (4:21.70) with Chavez, Mary Hanna and Kayla Yip. Cha, along with Yip and Ashley MacAskill, claimed another third-place finish in the 3x100 butterfly with a time of 3:13.04. Hanna, Fox, Cha and Yip combined to go 1:55.09 in the 200 medley relay to finish fourth. Finally, Cha swam to 100-yard leg of the 500 crescendo relay with Yip (50-yard), MacAskill (150) and Fox (200).
"It was an awesome meet for Krislyn and an outstanding starts by all these women," La Verne coach Pat Skehan said. "It was probably the best Pomona Relays for our team ever."
The men finished seventh as a team with three top-five finishes. Daniel Carpenter, La Verne's star freestyle specialist was a part of all top-five finishes.
The Leopards took second place in the 500 crescendo with Timothy Polman (50), CJ Woodward (100), Carpenter (150) and Brandon Pon (200) with a time of 4:20.29.
Polman, Pon, Carpenter came back with Kristofer Grigorian to to take fourth in the 400 freestyle relay at 3:19.10 and Polman, Woodward, Grigorian and Carpenter added a fifth place finish in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:29.01.
"The team votes for an MVP every meet and they voted the entire team as MVP as we had so many swimmers who had fantastic swims," Skehan said. "For the first meet of the season we were on point while working very hard in our training. It is a great start for us."
The Leopards return to action on Saturday, Nov. 12, as they host Cal Lutheran for a dual meet.