COMMERCE, Calif. (Feb. 20, 2020) – Caltech swim & dive will compete at the four-day 2020 SCIAC Championships this weekend, beginning tonight at 5p.m.
SCIAC Championship site
Location: Brenda Villa Aquatic Center, 500 Harbor St, Commerce, CA 90040
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Both gender teams enter the weekend on the heels of substantial success at last year's meet, where the men placed sixth for a third consecutive year while the women's sixth-place finish was the best in program history. Moreover, the men's 436 points were nearly 150 clear of seventh place while placing the Beavers just 42.5 out of fourth and the women held a similar margin ahead of seventh while merely 10.5 out of fifth and just 105 away from placing third.
Men
The Beavers boast a potent mix of returning individual scorers and highly seeded newcomers heading into this year's Championships despite consisting almost entirely of underclassmen without a single senior. The team's only pair of juniors, Adam Kogan (Clifton Park, N.Y. / Shenendehowa East) and JD Walker (Grand Blanc, Mich. / Grand Blanc), both earned points for the team in 2019, with Kogan notching a trio of scoring performances across the distance freestyle events while Walker placed in his trademark 10-yard Butterfly. Kogan once again enters this year under-seeded in the same three events, having finished ninth in the 200 Freestyle, 10th in the 1650 and 13th in the 500 but heading into the meet tabbed in 20th among qualifying scorers in the 500 and 18th in his stronger two. Walker, meanwhile, sits two spots back of last year's seeding in the 100 Fly (23rd) while also lurking in the 200 Fly, where his seed time is comically last by 10 seconds though his personal best from 2017-18 would place him in 17th among the field.
Sophomores Jeffrey Ma (San Jose, Calif. / Bellarmine Coll. Prep) and Timothy Yao (Thousand Oaks, Calif. / Dougherty Valley) will also look to reprise their scoring roles from the 100 Breastroke and 200 Free, respectively. Ma is seeded four places higher (12th) than he finished last year in the 100 and comes in at 11th in the 200, while Yao will be looking to surprise in the earlier heats as he enters the 200 Free seeded 27th and ranks 25th in the 100. Caltech's top-seeded relays also typically appear under-seeded with both the 200 Medley and Free Relays ranking sixth among in-season times yet hoping to approach last year's third-place finishes in the 200 and 400 Medley Relays.
"Our team captain, Adam – who is the school record holder in all three distance free events – will lead a really young team into this meet," Brabson said. "We're really looking for our freshmen to shine at their first high-level collegiate championship meet, and several have a good shot at the 'A' finals, program records and NCAA cuts. I think our relays will be solid too; we have a lot more talent and depth across a variety of events than we've enjoyed in the past, which gives us options and opportunities to step up in prelim swims."
Among the star rookie class, this year's highlight has been Shoonhsin Li (Horseheads, N.Y. / Horseheads), who will look to bookend a season which began with a program record in the 200 Fly of his first collegiate meet with possibly the highest-scoring individual slate of events for Caltech. The first-year is expected to score in all three individual events, with a low seed of fourth in the 200 Fly in addition to billings of 13th in the 200 IM and eighth in the 100 Fly, an event which could be the Beavers' highest scoring of the meet with classmates Reid Banciella (Miami, Fla. / MAST Acad.) and Daniel Nee (Wayland, Mass. / Wayland) also seeded 14th and 15th. That duo also appears within striking distance in each of their additional two individual events, with Banciella tabbed 17th in the 100 Free and 19th in the 50 while Nee comes in at 10th in the 100 Backstroke and 18th in the 200.
Another trio of freshmen who have rounded into excellent form over the final weeks of the season, Nathan McAlister (Reno, Nev. / Davidson Acad.), Joshua Lee (Santa Clarita, Calif. / Valencia) and George Wythes (Solana Beach, Calif. / Torrey Pines), should earn their fair share of points for the team as well. McAlister will lock down the distance events, ranking 11th in the 400 IM, 12th in the 1650 Free and 20th in the 200 IM while Lee is seeded in the last 'A' final spot of the 200 Breast as well as 13th in the 100 and 14th in the 200 IM. Wythes is in the scoring mix in his trademark backstroke events at 14th in the 100 and 16th in the 200. Freshman Isaac Smith (Tuscaloosa, Ala. / Northridge) and sophomore Thomas Barrett (Chatham, N.J. / Chatham) round out the likely potential scorers, with Smith eyeing a 16th seed in the 1650 Free and Barrett just outside the picture at 21st in the 500 Free and 2nd in the 100.
"Our goal at the start of the season was to have an 'A' finalist in every single event and I think this team is capable of that," Brabson said. "The goal this weekend is for the men to move up from a placing standpoint and for the entire team to have seasonal and lifetime bests. The team is looking good and they've prepared well; the only thing left to do is relax and have fun."
Women
Sophomores Olivia Grobowsky (Houston, Texas / Westside) and Isabel Swafford (Boise, Idaho / Boise) are the only returning scorers from last season and will likely rack up the majority of points this year as the team's performance leaders all season. Grobowksy should surprise several competitors who fail to see her name as far back as 23rd in the 1650 Free and 30th in the 500, as she paced 12th in the mile at last year's meet. Swafford, meanwhile, seems primed to better last year's already-impressive places of fifth in the 200 Back and ninth in the 50 Free; she enters this year as the conference's second-fastest backstroker in both the 100 and 200 during the season and is tabbed 10th in the 50 Free.
A pair of junior returners, Jessica Sun (York, Pa. / Red Lion Area Senior) and Stella Wang (Greensboro, N.C. / North Carolina School of Science & Math), will look to earn the first individual points of their careers in multiple events this weekend. Sun is seeded 15th in the 100 and 200 Breast and 31st in the 500, while Wang is positioned in 20th and 24th in the 100 and 200 Back. That quartet will combine with senior Tzarina Shippee (San Diego, Calif. / La Jolla) and the freshman duo of Maddie Swint (Charleston, W. Va. / George Washington) and Katherine Pan (Livonia, Mich. / Detroit Country Day School) to represent well on the relays – last year's squad recorded third-place finishes in the 400 Medley and 800 Free Relays, while entering this year with high seeds of fifth in the 200 Medley and 400 Free Relays.
"Izzy [Swafford] has been having a tremendous season so far, earning a tough award to win in the SCIAC Swimmer of the Week and breaking our previously elusive 200 IM record twice," Brabson said. "She'll be eyeing records in all three individual events and serve as a strong presence on our relays, but most importantly, and along with Jessica, will provide leadership on a team that hasn't had to shoulder a lot of scoring responsibility before. Our younger swimmers have a chance to step up to the level the excitement and competition that's always so noticeable at SCIACs."
Brabson and the Beavers begin competition tonight, Thursday, Feb. 20 at 5 p.m. with the 200 Medley and 800 Free Relays.
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