Sagehens Women’s Swim & Dive Team Win SCIAC Championship during a Record-Breaking Weekend

Women's-Swim-and-Dive-SCIAC-champs_webClaremont, 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.

About Pitzer College

Pitzer College is a nationally top-ranked undergraduate liberal arts and sciences institution. A member of The Claremont Colleges, Pitzer offers a distinctive approach to a liberal arts education by linking intellectual inquiry with interdisciplinary studies, cultural immersion, social responsibility, and community involvement. For more information, please visit www.pitzer.edu.

About Sagehen Athletics

Pitzer College joins with Pomona College to field 21 varsity teams – The Sagehens – that compete in Division III NCAA athletics and as members of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). There are 10 men’s and 11 women’s teams: baseball (men), basketball, cross country, football (men), golf, lacrosse (women), soccer, softball (women), swimming and diving, tennis, track and field, volleyball (women) and water polo.

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