A recap of the 2025 Big West Swimming & Diving Championships successes
By DIEGO CERNA — sports@theaggie.org
From Feb. 12 to 15, the UC Davis women’s swimming and diving team competed in the Big West Conference Swimming & Diving Championships that took place at the University of Houston’s Campus Recreation and Wellness Center (CRWC) Natatorium in Texas.
Previously, the UC Davis Aggies had competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) Conference for the past 15 years. This year marked the first time the Big West has hosted a swimming and diving championship since 2010, which also happened to be the last time UC Davis captured their last win in the Big West Championships.
The first day of the competition showcased the team medley — a mix of freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly between four swimmers.
Emily Scheberies, a second-year communications major, went first with a 50-meter backstroke, earning a time of 25.95 seconds. Sam Rhodes, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, continued the second leg of the breaststroke with a time of 28.31 seconds. Brynn Graham, a second-year mechanical engineering major, carried the third leg of the event, the butterfly, with a time of 24.97 seconds. To finish the medley, Sophi MacKay, a second-year communications major, closed with a time of 22.41 seconds. The overall time, in minutes, for the team was 1:47, securing the team the fourth spot overall.
Then came the 800m relay, where four team members completed 200m freestyle each, which is four laps in the pool, measured in minutes. Elsie Luisetti, a second-year food science major, started strong with a time of 1:51. Katie McLain, a fourth-year communications and international relations double major, entered during the second leg with a backstroke time of 1:50, leading Rhodes into the third leg with a time of 1:50. MacKay anchored again, finishing off with a time of 1:49. The team ended with an overall time of 7:21, improving by 12 seconds from their season’s previous best.
Day two featured the one-meter contest, where divers were required to perform a series of movements as they jumped off of a springboard into the pool. Divers are scored based on execution and degree of difficulty.
Five Aggie divers made it past the preliminary rounds. This included Leila Busch, a fourth-year human development major, Taylor Schwarz, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, Priscilla Nguyen, a third-year biological sciences major, Mackenzie Young, a third-year animal science and management major, and Katherine Lim, a first-year animal science major.
MacKay was one of the only Aggies to compete in the 50m dash, where she placed third overall, swimming a personal best of 22.02 seconds. Within milliseconds, McLain, the only other Aggie to compete in the 50m dash, finished right after in fourth place with a time of 23.06 seconds.
In the 200m freestyle relay, MacKay and McLain were accompanied by Christy Douglas, a fourth-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major, and Anna Boyer, a third-year undeclared major, in the closest race of the championships. They ended up fourth overall, only within a second of the three places ahead. The overall time clocked at 1:31.60 minutes, almost surpassing the Aggies’ previous all-time record of 1:31:42 minutes. This same quad would also end up placing third overall in the 400m freestyle relay, having a time of 3:20 minutes, marking the last event of day four.
On the third day, the 400m medley relay featured Scheberies, McLain, Graham and Rhodes. They finished on the podium in third with a time of 3:43 minutes. Rhodes would also record a personal best in the 400m finals, coming in third overall with a time of 4:16 minutes, which was three seconds improved from her previous best.
The last day of the competition mainly highlighted the diving squad. Young finished as the highest-ranking Aggie with a silver medal on the platform, and Lim earned a third-place finish in the long fall. Lauren Kudo, a first-year undeclared major, Schwarz and Busch all placed in the top eight.
Phil Tonne, one of the diving team’s head coaches, was also named the Big West Diving Co-Coach of the Year on Friday, Feb. 21. He helped eight of the Aggie medalists reach the podium throughout the championships, striving for tremendous improvements among the team in the one- and three-meter dives.
Overall, the Big West Championships proved to be a success for the Aggies. Multiple UC Davis team members medaled, records were broken and personal bests were improved. The Aggies will look forward to bringing this momentum with them into the 2025-2026 season, building on their strong achievements.
Written by: Diego Cerna — sports@theaggie.org
