SOUTH GATE, Calif. — The University of La Verne swimming and diving team captains led the way for the Leopards at the annual Collegiate Winter Invitational at South Gate Swim Stadium on Dec. 11-13.
Daniel Carpenter competed in three individual races and four relays and recorded top-3 finishes in all of them. The freestyle specialist, along with CJ Woodward, Harry Bennett and Timothy Polman, kicked off the meet with a third place finish in the men's 200 yard medley relay with a time of 1 minute, 37.78 seconds and rolled through the rest of the weekend.
He jumped up two spots from his preliminary position in the 200 freestyle to come in second in the final at 1:44.00 and placed third in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.41. He slashed more than one second off his preliminary time in the 100 freestyle to finish second in the final at 46.75.
Carpenter, Polman, Woodward and DJ Atherton finished third in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:26.87. Bennett replaced Woodward in the 400 freestyle relay and La Verne touched second at 3:14.63.
Bennett claimed the 200 breaststroke and recorded a handful of top-5 finishes. He was third in the 200 individual medley (1:58.60), third in the 100 breaststroke (59.41) and was fourth in the 100 IM (55:36).
Women's captains Miranda Chavez and Alexis Smith recorded personal bests. Miranda Chavez finished fifth in 200 breaststroke (2:35.39) and was just outside of the top-10 in the 100 at 1:11.46. Smith placed sixth in the 100 IM with a time of 1:06.93.
"Our captains were the first to lead the cheer, be backup timers and encourage our rookies," La Verne head coach Pat Skehan said. "La Verne swimming and diving have truly embraced the concept of team. Together, everyone achieves more."
The captains weren't the only ones encouraging the Leopards. Five-time All-American and nine-time SCIAC champion Maddie Lovrensky '15 was on hand to help and worked out a strategy for a better 200 backstroke with freshman Woodward and sophomore Mary Hanna, which led to lifetime bests for both.
Woodward recorded third- and sixth-place finishes in the 200 (2:04.57) and the 100 (56.39), respectively. Hanna placed third in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:14.13 and fifth in the 100 backstroke at 1:00.60.
Krislyn Cha and Rachel Fox each recorded at least one top-5 finish. Cha finished third in the 100 IM with a time of 1:04.25. Freshman Fox touched fourth in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:31.08.
Kayla Yip was another freshman that stepped up and saw huge improvements. She went 59.60 in the 100 butterfly to place sixth and added another sixth-place finish in the 200 with a time of 2:13.97.
On the diving boards, Scott MacKay won both the 1-meter and the 3-meter boards and qualified for the NCAA regional meet. This is the second year in a row MacKay made the regional cut at the Winter Invitational. He scored 267.05 points on the 1-meter and 315.40 on the 3-meter.
Amber DeLoye finished eighth on the 1-meter board with a score of 145.30 and fifth on the 3-meter with a 150.45.
In all, the Leopards turned in 11 NCAA top-100 marks, 28 personal records and 87 season records.
"We are looking forward to Christmas training with Olympians and getting ready for the SCIAC dual meets in January," Skehan said.
La Verne returns to action on Jan. 9 against Redlands and Whittier.
