CLAREMONT, Calif. — Brandon Pon and Mary Hanna led the University of La Verne swimming and diving team with strong performances in the Leopards' SCIAC opener Saturday morning.
Scores
Men: Whittier 158, La Verne 90 | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 231, La Verne 50
Women: Whittier 188, La Verne 101 | Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 236, La Verne 49
"We showed a lot of grit today," said Head Coach Pat Skehan. "CMS is nationally ranked for both the men and women and are fast and have a very deep team. Our athletes battle hard and stuck with it every lap of the way."
Pon set the pace for the Leopards winning the 1000 free in 10:06.18. The junior just edged out the Stags' Kyrellos Ibrahim who touched at 10:06.66. Pon came back in the very next event to finish fourth in the 200 free in 1:49.96. The La Verne native added another top-3 finish later in the meet coming in second in the 500 free in 4:52.57. Pon finished up his day leading off the Leopards' in the 400 freestyle relay.
On the women's side, Mary Hanna turned in a strong second place finish in the 100 backstroke clocking in at 1:01.97. Hanna added a third place finish in the 100 freestyle in 56.03 and touched fourth in the 200 IM at 220.60.
Lorenzo De Leon posted another strong performance for La Verne, turning in three fourth place finishes in the 100 backstroke (56.59), the 200 backstroke (2:02.80), and the 200 IM (2:04.39).
Kayla Yip added a top-three finish in the 100 butterfly touching at 1:01.37, and added a fourth place performance in the 50 freestyle with a time of 25.67.
Ashley MacAskill finished fourth in the 1000 freestyle (11:36.40) and fifth in the 500 freestyle (5:38.72). Just ahead of MacAskill in the 500 free was Rachel Fox who touched third at 5:34.84.
In the diving competition, Andrew Tompkins took second in the one-meter dive with a score of 268.05.
"Above all the great finishes there was also huge growth and lots of swimmers hitting personal bests," said Skehan. "I was really proud of their fight today."
Next Meet: The Leopards open home competition next Saturday when they host the Caltech Beavers at Las Flores Park at 10 a.m.