LA VERNE, Calif. — The University of La Verne men's and women's swimming and diving teams both took losses against Cal Lutheran in the first SCIAC meet of the season on Saturday at Las Flores Park.
Harry Bennett won all four events in which he competed on the men's side. The star breaststroker helped La Verne get off to a good start, swimming the breaststroke leg of the winning 400 yard medley relay to kick off the swimming portion of the meet. He combined with CJ Woodward (backstroke), Timothy Polman (butterfly) and Daniel Carpenter (freestyle) to post a time of 3:41.80.
Bennett went on to win the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:01.19 and the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:16.38, edging out Cal Lutheran's Ryan Emili in both events. Emili went 1:01.93 in the 100 and 2:16.54 in the 200. Bennett capped off the the meet with a comfortable win in the 200 individual medley (2:06.63).
Polman notched the only other individual win for La Verne in the 50 freestyle, winning the race at 21.70.
Brandon Pon, last year's breakout distance specialist, placed second in both the 1000 (10:16.56) and the 500 freestyle (4:59.48), finishing behind Cal Lutheran's Jonah Hobbs in both.
Krislyn Cha, Miranda Chavez, Rachel Fox and Mary Hanna each claimed an individual win on the women's side. Cha touched first in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:23.07. Chavez claimed the 200 breastroke with a time of 2:39.26 and Fox won the 100 breastroke with a time of 1:13.67 and Hanna took the 100 backstroke, touching the wall at 1:02.09.
The Leopards won the 400 medley relay as Hanna, Chavez, Cha and Kayla Yip combined to go 4:18.73, winning by more than 10 seconds.
The Leopards return to action next Saturday at Whittier for a multi-dual against the Poets and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps.