It was standing room only Saturday afternoon at Schaal Aquatics Center, as the Aggies wrapped up their dual season against the Anteaters of UC Irvine.
UC Davis put up a dominant performance against its Big West Conference rival, as the Aggie men and women beat UC Irvine by scores of 161-128 and 175-123, respectively.
The Schaal Aquatics Center played home to a senior tribute in which the 12 graduating team members were honored at a mid-dual intermission.
“That was the fastest performance by a UC Davis team at Schaal – ever,“ said men’s coach Pete Motekaitis. “Hopefully, this dual was a stepping stone to a fantastic performance at conference.”
The Big West Championships begin Feb. 25 in Long Beach, Calif.
The men finish their dual season at 9-3, while the women improved to 9-10. The wins give UC Davis its first sweep of the Anteaters since the 2004-2005 season.
The men’s program made an impressive start, winning the first 10 events of the day before swimming the final four events in exhibition.
As for the women, they won eight events, taking first and second place in six events.
Junior Heidi Kucera continued her streak of winning individual and relay events. She’s won three or more events for four straight weekends.
Kucera took the top spot in both the 100- and 200-breastrokes with times of 1:05.62 and 2:24.54. She also won the 400 individual medley in 4:30.97.
Freshman Jordan Lager also had three personal-best swims, as he too won three events. He set two Schaal Aquatics Center records with his times in the 100- (49.29) and 200-backstroke (1:49.37). He also swam exhibition to win the 400-yard individual medley (2:03.62).
Junior transfer Ed Morrison captured two individual wins, taking the 200-butterfly (1:52.29) and the 500-freestyle (4:33.69) as an exhibition swimmer. His 500-free time was the third fastest in pool history.
Morrison also led an Aggie sweep in the 200-butterfly, followed closely by junior Danny Donnelly (1:54.33) and freshman Reid Hartz (1:55.42).
UC Davis continued to keep moral high all the way to the last event, as junior Russ Underwood completed the anchor leg in the 400-free relay with a crowd-pleasing, 50-meter sprint.
ANDREA GUTIERREZ can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
