Swim and Dive concludes Winter Invite

SOUTH GATE, CA — Brandon Pon added a win, the men's squad finished second overall, and the University of La Verne swimming and diving teams capped off a successful 2018 Collegiate Winter Invite Sunday night. 

Pon led the Leopards on the final day of the invite with a commanding win in the 1650 yard freestyle. Pon, who owns the La Verne record in the event, clocked in with a winning time of 16:19.50, outswimming SCIAC foes Tom Jansen and Jordan Convery both from Redlands to earn the win. Miguel Espinosa finished fifth in the event with a time of 18:34.79. 

Lorenzo DeLeon added another top-three finish to his successful weekend. The sophomore touched at 1:57.54 in the 200 yard backstroke.

Kayla Yip finished as the best DIII swimmer in the 100 yard individual medley. Yip earned a fifth place finish, touching at 1:03.89. Rachel Fox had a strong swim in the 1650 yard freestyle, finishing as the top DIII swimmer in the event. Fox turned in a time of 19:08.76, taking tenth overall. Fox also added an 11th place finish in the 200 yard breaststroke clocking in at 2:33.34. On the men's side, Gavin Sato took fourth in the 200 breaststroke at 2:24.79.

The Leopards went 2-3 in the men's 100 yard individual medley. CJ Woodward took second with a time of 55.40 and Joshua Turner took third at 1:23.38. Woodward also took sixth in the 100 yard freestyle finishing with a time of 50.13. Sara Bartelt took eighth in the one meter dive with a score of 142.50.

The men's 400 yard freestyle relay team capped off the meet with a third place finish. DeLeon, Kristofer Grigorian, Trevor Ichiki, and Pon ended the race with a time of 3:19.53. Off the boards, 

The La Verne men's squad took second overall with a final score of 1,210, finishing behind NCAA Division II Biola who won the meet with 1,388 points. The women's squad finished in sixth with a score of 601. Division II Cal Sate East Bay won the women's meet.

Day One Recap

Day Two Recap

Next Race

The Leopards will break for the rest of 2018 before returning to action on January 6 when they travel to San Diego to take on Westminister College in an exhibition meet.