Claremont, Calif. (February 22, 2016)—Big news in the pool over the weekend: The Pomona-Pitzer women’s swimming and diving team won the 2015-16 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday, February 20, in La Mirada, Calif., while the men’s team finished in second place. To top it off, record-setting Pitzer first-year student Maddie Kauahi ’19 was named SCIAC Newcomer of the Year, and Pomona-Pitzer head coach J.P. Gowdy swam away with the 2015-16 SCIAC Coach of the Year title for the second consecutive year.
The Sagehen swimming teams broke a combined 21 records at the SCIAC Championships.
The Sagehens women’s team finished with 1,044 points while cross-street (and cross-lane) rivals Claremont-Mudd-Scripps took second with a score of 964. The Sagehens title ended a 13-year streak held by CMS.
Pitzer’s Kara Miller-Radest ’18 defended her SCIAC title from last year in the women’s 200 fly, finishing in first with a time of 2:04.57 and set a new program record. Kauahi finished the 100 yard freestyle in second place as she was edged out by CMS swimmer Kelly Ngo by .04 seconds. Kauahi finished the race with a 51.09 and set a new program record for Pomona-Pitzer. Sarah Jin (PO ’19) took the 200 yard backstroke title and set a new team record with a time of 2:06.57. Defending her SCIAC title in the 1650 free, Kelsey Thomas (PO ’18) took first place and swam an NCAA “B” cut time of 17:19.60.
On the men’s side, the team started out the competition with Tommy Turner (PO ’17) taking second place in the 1,650 freestyle while breaking a program record at 15:59.01. Mark Hallman (PO ’18) followed that up with another record breaking performance as he took second in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 44.96. Pomona-Pitzer also finished in second in the 200-yard breaststroke as Teddy Koerner (PO ’19) broke a new team record clocking in at 2:04.44. Samuel To (PO ’18) went on to break another team record with a third place finish in the 200-yard butterfly with a time of 1:51.61. The Sagehens capped off the night with a second place finish in the 400 yard freestyle relay with the team of Adrian Hui (PO ’19), Hallman, Danny Villars (PO ’17) and Phillip Clayman (PO ’16) breaking a Sagehen record clocking in at 3:02.83.
The Sagehens will next see action in the NCAA Diving Regionals on February 26 in Grinnell, Iowa.