Two Tigers post personal bests in SCIAC win

PASADENA, Calif. (Jan. 30, 2010) – Occidental College swimmers continue to improve as they surpass personal bests and record firsts as the men’s team defeated Caltech 151-88 on the road in Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference action today.

In the first individual swimming event of the day Will Carlson shaved 13 seconds off his 1000 freestyle time, completing the race in 11:10.57 to place first by more than six seconds over teammate Tai McDermott.

The next event saw another stand-out performance as Miner Ross stole the 200 free with a personal best of more than two seconds, finishing in 1:51.14, .61 of a second ahead of Peter Buhler who was a 2009 Top-8 finisher at SCIAC Championships.

To wrap-up the meet, Oxy’s 200 free relay team of Adam Kantor, Joe Reynolds, Ross and Stephen Ratkovich recorded a season best time of 1:32.29.

Other highlights of the day were Ratkovich, Zach Condon and Reynolds finishing 1-2-3 in the 50 free in 22.86, 23.64 and 23.69, respectively. Ratkovich then led the Tiger pack to another 1-2-3 effort in the 100 free, which he won in 50.50 followed by Ross and McDermott, who each finished sub-one-minute. Condon also turned in a first place finish in the 500 free (5:10.52), with Richard Dybas and Riley Kimball placing third and fourth.

Austen Oliver and Dybas were the third and fourth finishers in the 200 free while Oliver added a second place swim in the 200 butterfly, with Kimball coming in fourth.

Jeven Dovey, Kantor and Alex Budig were the top three finishers in the 200 IM with Dovey swimming the race in 2:09.77. Dovey went on to win the 100 breaststroke as well, touching the wall in 1:02.93. Carlson was second in the race.

For the first time in his collegiate career Dybas took to the diving board, scoring third place points for the Tigers. He broke the century mark, scoring 101.80 points on just five dives.

The Tigers opened the meet with a victory in the 200 medley relay in which Condon, Dovey, Oliver and Reynolds combined to swim in a time of 1:45.18.

Occidental will return to the cozy confines of Taylor Pool for the final time of 2010 on Saturday, Feb. 6 when they host Pomona-Pitzer at 11:00 a.m. Diving will take place at the Rose Bowl Aquatics Center on Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. Prior to the swimming portion of the meet, Oxy will recognize the senior student-athletes.

Article by: Tracy Maple