ORANGE, Calif. (Nov. 13, 2021) – Six-time Honorable Mention All-America graduate student Sam Solomon (Rockville, Md. / MIT) formally asserted his presence in the SCIAC with a superlative victory on the 3-meter diving board and a hard-luck second on the 1m as Caltech men's and women's swim & dive competed in its first tri-meet of the season at Chapman University alongside No. 10 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday morning.
Solomon posted the top 3m score in the SCIAC this season with a 306.40, defeating two close competitors from CMS by just 2.1 and 7.85 points, respectively, and took a tough second-place finish on the 1m. His opening dives of 71.40 on a back 1.5 somersault, 2.5 twist on the 3m and 57.2 on a 2.5 somersault in pike on the 1m were both meet highs as his trio of other 3.0 degree-of-difficulty dives carried him to victory on the 3m, while a controversial 3-score alongside two 5's on his final 1m dive relegated him to second by just 3.7 points.
The men's team defeated Chapman decisively by a score of 218-60, though fell to CMS while the women's team was depleted by illness and injury, leaving the Beavers with a pair of losses that did not come close to showing their true caliber, particularly after several impressive debuts the week prior.
The first highlight of the day for Caltech came in the men's 200 Free, where sophomores Naci Keskin (Istanbul, Turkey / Robert Coll. of Istanbul) and Christopher Pukszta (Irvine, Calif. / Northwood) posted a huge 1-2 finish with sophomore Leo Yang (Blacksburg, Va. / Blacksburg) hanging right alongside for fourth place and a massive 15-4 point haul over the Stags. All three recorded program Top-10 times, with Keskin's 1:42.37 and Pukszta's 1:43.00 and Yang's 1:44.37 all appearing as the regular season swims on the list.
Sophomore Vivian Zhang (Green Brook, N.J. / Watchung Hills Regional) notched a second consecutive victory in the 100 Back with her first sub-1:00 time that also ranked third all-time, while the men's trio of freshmen Jason Lin (Los Angeles, Calif. / Taipei American) and Evan Zhang (Great Falls, Va. / Thomas Jefferson) and sophomore Tao Zhang (Highlands Ranch, Colo. / Rock Canyon) rocked the 100 Breast with 2-3-4 finishes behind the 2020 SCIAC third-place breaststroker, ranking second, third and eighth in program history, respectively. A 2-3 finish by freshman Pierre Zeineddin (Gaithersburg, Md. / Richard Montgomery) and sophomore Andrew Pasco (Haddonfield, N.J. / Bishop Eustace) in the 200 Fly picked up some key points for the Beavers as well, with Pasco making a Top-10 appearance in third behind his teammate.
Rookie Max Oberg (The Woodlands, Texas / The Woodlands College Park) came within just .14 shy of the program 50 Free record in 21.04 placing between a pair of CMS sprinters, including multiple-time All-America Marco Conati, while sophomore Lucas Abounadar (Austin, Texas / Liberal Arts and Science Acad.) and rookie Sam Small (Ringwood, U.K. / Ringwood) took big steps forward with times of 21.47 and 21.71 for the third, fifth and eighth-fastest times historically. Oberg then came out on top in the 100 Free, narrowly out-touching a CMS swimmer by .28 with a blazing final 50 split with Keskin notching a close third place at 46.75. Sophomore Brooke Williams (Clifton, Va. / Trinity Christian) made her long-awaited debut after missing out on last week's opener in the 50 Free, claiming victory in 24.86 that is the top time among non-Claremont schools in the conference early in the season. Zhang was a close second in the 200 Back and freshman Mila Hong (Palo Alto, Calif. / Saint Francis) went after the leaders with a game first 50 in the 100 Fly, but dropped back to fourth while Zhang also finished a close third in the 200 IM down the stretch. Hong still ranked fourth and fifth all-time in the 100 and 200, respectively, while the 200 Free Relay team posted the Beavers' third-fastest time ever.
Lin kicked off a few more highlights on the deeper men's side before the end of the meet with an emphatic 200 Breast showing. His time of 2:05.48 also ranked second in program history only to three-time Honorable Mention All-America Tom Gallup '20 and is the second-fastest time posted in the conference this season. The rookie showed a veteran's poise in swimming a controlled first 50 before claiming the lead on the second and blowing the field away in the third by more than a full second to cruise to a 2.5-second win. Oberg and Yang followed with quality 500 Free performances to place second and third, though Oberg's splits showed he had more in the tank and simply ran out of pool trying to catch the leader, with his final 100 split (53.46) just a second shy of closing what had been a three-second gap at the 400 mark. The meet closed with the 200 Free Relays, where the men's B team actually edged the A by half a second behind despite Evan Zhang posting either foursome's fastest leg and the third-quickest in the pool at 20.99. Yang led off with a 22.01, followed by junior George Wythes (Solana Beach, Calif. / Torrey Pines) in 22.23, Pukszta at a relay-best 21.33 and senior Thomas Barrett (Chatham, N.J. / Chatham) anchoring in 21.45.
Head Coach Andrew Brabson and the Beavers will host the annual Caltech Invitational this Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 20-21 with diving beginning at 9 a.m. and swimming at 10:30 a.m. each day.
