Before UC Davis’ swim meet on Saturday, coach Barbara Jahn praised the work ethic of freshman Bridget Bugbee, one of the star swimmers, saying that she practices intensely and has a lot of energy.
On Saturday, that practice looked to have paid off as Bugbee captured first in the 200-, 500- and 1000- yard freestyle races.
Bugbee, who swam both the 1000-yard and 200-yard freestyle events consecutively, helped lead the women’s swim team to a win over Seattle by a score of 143-89.
Her 200- time turned out to be her season best so far as she clocked in at a time of 1:55.51.
Freshman Grace Benefield also contributed in the Aggies’ win as she finished in second place behind Bugbee in the 1000- and 500- yard races.
Benefield started the 1000-yard race in third place and was there for the first few laps. She then pushed past a Seattle swimmer and held on for the second-place finish with a time of 10:41.91 minutes.
In the 50-yard freestyle event, four out of the five women to compete posted season bests – Ashley Chandler (24.40), Jennifer Cadmus (24.91), Samantha Capozzo (25.12) and Morgan Lee (25.35) – while also taking the top three spots.
The women’s 400-yard relay took first with a time of 3:37.49 to narrowly edge out Seattle by 0.40 seconds. Jenah Dawson, who swam the first leg of the event, posted a lifetime best according to Jahn. Lisa Bender swam the anchor for the Aggies despite being injured.
“That was all heart because she just really wanted to have that relay team win,” Jahn said.
The men also won their meet by a score of 132-102 as the Aggies took the top three spots in the 1000-yard freestyle event.
In that race, Matt Herman jumped out to an impressive lead from the beginning and never looked back. Herman finished first with a time of 9:39.30. He also took first in the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4:42.43.
Reid Hartz came in at second in the 1000-yard free behind Herman with a time of 10:03.86 and in front of fellow Aggie Jeremy Smith who clocked in at 10:04.29.
While Seattle did not have a dive team, the Aggie divers still competed in the men’s and women’s one and three-meter diving events.
Now that the Aggies have captured another win, their focus will shift to next week’s matchup at home against Denver.
“Overall it was a good meet,” John said. “Denver is a really tough team coming up this Friday. We have a few people who are still nursing injuries so if we can get them back to 100 percent then it is going to be an extremely close match-up.”
MADELINE WEEKS can be reached at sports@theaggie.org.
