By Cyanna Rosa
Monterey Park, CA- The University of La Verne held their annual Winter Invite this week at East Los Angeles College. The Leopards faced competition from all over the NCAA pools, hosting 14 teams. The Leopards experienced it all this weekend, with new personal records, new team relay records, and 19 finals qualifications.
In the diving portion of the weekend, Leopard diver, Kira Delgelsmith, placed 12th overall in her performance on the Women's 1 Meter Dive and 13th overall in the 3 Meter Dive.
Asher Kocalis, was the first Leopard of the weekend to enter the finals on Friday afternoon, competing in the 500 Yard Freestyle. Kocalis placed first in the bonus heat while defeating his preliminary time by nearly 5 seconds, ending the night with a 4:46.79.
Sophomore Cody Lehotsky was next up on the block with his exceptional 22.19 50 Yard Freestyle in the preliminaries. Lehotsky also competed in the bonus heat, placing 5th and tying his preliminary time of 22.19.
Following Friday's finalists, Saturday and Sunday were busy days for the Leopards, with seven qualifications for finals on Saturday and another ten qualifications on Sunday.
Starting Saturday's finals in the 400 Yard IM, Freshmen, Nico Eustaquio and Dylan Sovine raced for first place in the Bonus Finals Heat. The men placed first and second with Sovine shaving his preliminary time by 2 seconds (4:48.14) Kocalis returned to the blocks for the 200 Yard Freestyle Finals. Again he placed first in his heat with a 1:45.26 final time, averaging 26s for all 50's across the race.
Following the night, Leopard Jake Gordon competed in the Finals for the 100 Yard Breaststroke placing fourth in the bonus heat. To end the night, the Leopards snatch three finals qualifications in the 100 Yard Backstroke. Competing in the bonus heat, Jaden Javier, Nathan West, and Brandon Pham placed 5th, 7th, and 8th.
With an aggressive Saturday, the Leopards did not hold back with 4 finalists placing in the first event held on Sunday; the 100 Yard IM. Senior Emma Vu crushed her preliminary time with her second swim in the finals, cutting nearly two seconds off (1:09.38). Following Vu's swim, Brandon Pham, Dylan Sovine, and Nico Eustaquio all placed in the Championship heat of the event, each shaving off milliseconds from their preliminary time to provide the biggest leap in points for the Leopards this weekend.
Dylan Sovine, once again, made an appearance at the finals with his preliminary time of 2:17.05 in the 200 Yard Backstroke. With a near three-second shave from this time, Sovine competed in the finals with an astounding 2:14.57.
After the appearance in Friday's 50 Yard Freestyle, Cody Lehotsky continued his freestyle sprints in the bonus finals heat. In the last two events of the weekend, two Leopards stole a spot in the finals in the 200 Yard Breaststroke and 200 Yard Butterfly. First, the University of La Verne's Jake Gordon and Nico Eustaquio took to the blocks, swimming the 200 Yard Breaststroke. In the 200 Yard Butterfly, Marcus Montoya competed in his first bonus heat of the weekend, placing 5th and cutting off milliseconds from his preliminary time earlier that day. Asher Kocalis ended the Leopard weekend placing 10th overall and second in the consolation heat of the 200 Yard Butterfly, shaving nearly two seconds off of his first competing time.
The Swim and Dive team will continue their action next year facing Chapman on January 7th at 11:00 AM.
