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Davis, California

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Swimming splits dual at Pacific

The UC Davis men’s and women’s swimming teams traveled for their third straight weekend dual, this time heading to Stockton to take on Big West Conference rival Pacific.

The men had a dominant showing once again, as they achieved a 145-point total and then swam exhibition against the Tigers en route to a comfortable 37-point win. Meanwhile, the women suffered a heartbreaking two-point loss, 132-130.

The Aggies combined to win 18 of 28 events, including three of the four relays.

Junior Danny Donnelly led the way for the men, claiming two individual wins in addition to being part of the 200 medley relay team.

Donnelly won the 100-yard backstroke (50.72) and was the winning exhibitioner in the 100 butterfly (50.39). He also swam the leadoff leg in the 200 medley, competing with teammates Scott Weltz, Russ Underwood and Kyle Anderson.

Weltz had a successful day as well, winning three individual events. Those events included beating out ranked Pacific swimmers to claim the top spot in both 500- and 1,000-distance free events (4:33.31 and 9:17.18, respectively) along with the 400 individual medley (4:05.97).

Underwood and Anderson combined to win another three individual events.

Underwood won the 50 and 100 free with times of 21:36 and 47.23, respectively. Anderson went on to end his day by winning the 200 breast in 2:09.45.

Finishing the day on a good note for the men were freshmen Alex Daneke and Derek Baldwin, sophomore Jimmy Fong and senior Alex Arbios, who won the 400 free relay in 3:11.17 in exhibition.

The men’s dual record improved to 7-3 with the victory over the Tigers.

The women’s team, however, suffered a grueling two-point loss despite winning the final event of the day.

“We knew it could be a close meet,” said women’s coach Barbara Jahn, “but that our relays could be the way to beat them.”

Junior Heidi Kucera again won three individual events for her third straight weekend. Individually, Kucera won the 100 breast (1:04.75), 200 breast (2:21.22) and 200 IM (2:06.94).

Kucera also teamed with seniors Emily Medved and Mary Sturempf and sophomore Amanda Holman to place second in the opening 200 medley relay (1:47.22).

The women also put up some quality points in the 200 freestyle, sweeping first through fourth place. Tyler Ring claimed the top spot in 1:55.11 to edge out fellow sophomore Linda Hermann (1:55.39).

Taking third and fourth were freshmen Katelyn Griffin and Buffy Ajimura at 1:56.79 and 156.86, respectively.

Ajimura and Hermann combined with Medved and freshman Kayleigh Foley to win the closing 400 free relay (2:36.19).

Next up for the Aggies is a Saturday dual with Cal State Bakersfield. The teams will hit the water at 1 p.m. at the Schaal Aquatics Center.

ANDREA GUTIERREZ can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.

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