Photo by samsphotoservices.com
Los Angeles, CA — On Saturday, the men's and women's swimming and diving teams hosted Biola University for the second meet of the season. Homecoming weekend brought lots of spectators and support for the Tigers.
Overall, the Tigers put up a really strong performance against Biola despite the close loss.
The first individual swim was the 1650 freestyle swim women and men together. Amanda George and Josh Spessert both lead the way winning their respective events. Amanda (1st, 18:24.38) sat comfortably next to the lead swimming for the first half of the race but came back with an incredible second half to pass the Biola swimmer and win the event by over 5 seconds. (second place was 18:30.24). Amanda was followed by Sam Edington (5th, 19:54.31) and Rachel Lillenthal (6th, 20:04.78) who also put up fantastic times for early season. Josh (1st,17:26.69) had a comfortable lead from the beginning and swam a very strong race to take the win for Occidental.
Moving on to some Breaststroke action, with Occidental's fantastic depth in this stroke, Julia Mayuzumi-Shiroishi (2nd, 1:08.67), Florence Lo (3rd, 1:09.37), and Eloise Sundal (5th, 1:16.20) all swam strong races to score good points. Julia led the field through the first half and hung on for a solid second place finish. The men also dominated in the breaststroke events with Nate Pitroff leading the way for the tigers finishing 2nd in a time of 1:00.20, with Peyton Resto (5th, 1:02.76), Gavin Thomas (6th, 1:05.35), and Will Thomas (7th, 1:05.74) all close behind for the tigers.
The men also found themselves dominating in the sprint free events. Josh Biggs led the field in the 50 and 100 free, out touching a Biola swimmer by 0.01 in the 100 freestyle. In the 50 Josh (1st, 21.63) was followed by Carter Park (5th, 22.70), Compton French (6th, 22.80), and Luca Nisimblat (8th, 23.97). For the women's 50 Freestyle, Marrisa Emotto (1st, 25.38) swept the 50 free and was followed closely by Chanel Ng (4th, 26.38), and Alison Wong (5th, 26.87).
Continuing to wow in her first year season, Emily Szopa took the win in the 100 and 200 Butterfly. The 100 fly was won by Emily (1st, 58.23) who was followed by Candace Farling (2nd, 1:02.68). Oxy women also had a strong showing in the 200 Butterfly with Emily (1st, 2:10.32) along with Candace (4th, 2:20.70) scoring big points for the tigers.
Finishing up the meet with the 400 Freestyle relay, the men's teams once again dominated with Josh Biggs winning the event for the A relay along with Nate Pitroff, Alex To, and Carter Park in a time of 3:12.41.
Next Meet: Oxy will host CMS on Saturday, November 5 at 10 a.m.
