PASADENA, Calif. (Nov. 21, 2021) – Caltech women's swim & dive set several program records and notched multiple nationally competitive times in defeating Occidental College as part of the Caltech Invitational this past weekend.
The Beavers started the day in a 53-point hole due to Occidental's uncontested trio of 3-meter board divers and got some bad news as one swimmer had to pull out via injury during warmup. The team banded together, however, and steadily improved throughout the meet. Despite dropping the opening 400-yard Medley Relay (which included several big steps forward from the season's previous two meets) to Oxy by less than a second, sophomore Joy Shi (Rockville, Md. / Wootton) nabbed a key second place to CLU in the 500 Free and senior Olivia Grobowsky (Houston, Texas / Westside) edged out the next CLU and Oxy swimmers for fourth place. Rookie Catherine Deng (San Jose, Calif. / BASIS Independent) and sophomore Vivian Zhang (Green Brook, N.J. / Watchung Hills Regional) topped all CLU competitors finishing second and fifth in the 200 IM and the theme of close second-place finishes continued in the 50 Free as freshman Mila Hong (Palo Alto, Calif. / Saint Francis) just missed breaking the 25-second barrier at 25.01 before Zhang with another sub-1:00 100 Back and freshman Charlotte Zhang (San Diego, Calif. / Torrey Pines) in the 200 Free. Freshman Favour Okodogbe (Amityville, N.Y. / St. John the Baptist) and junior Maddie Swint (Charleston, W. Va. / George Washington) provided highlights in the prior heat of the 100 Back with three- and one-second drops to place sixth and seventh ahead of the first CLU swimmer.
Caltech finally picked up some big momentum with a thrilling 1-2 finish in the 100 Fly as Deng notched her 'B' cut by almost a second at a 55.82 that currently ranks seventh in the nation, with Hong out-touching the first Oxy and CLU finishers by .02 and .20, respectively. First-year Natalie Lee (Westfield, N.Y. / Union County Magnet) and Swint made it a meet-high 62-point haul finishing in fifth and eighth place. Now fired up, the Beavers entered the 200 Free Relay looking to erase Oxy's Medley win and did just that by an even thinner margin, touching .06 sooner for the win just three seconds behind the NCAA qualifying time and the program record by more than second. Deng paced the pool with a team season-best 24.54 first leg, followed by a 25.27 from Lee that barely maintained the edge for Caltech before Hong was chased down by the fastest split of the race from Oxy, though still recorded a solid 24.79. Charlotte Zhang dove in trailing by .30 as the fourth rookie on the Beavers' foursome and promptly made up the margin at the turn, then brought it home with a strong finish for a blazing 24.47 anchor split and the victory.
Day Two opened with the 1m competition, consisting of three divers from Caltech and Oxy. The Tigers still managed to gain an edge, but cross country crossover sophomore Katy Chu (Los Gatos, Calif. / Saint Francis) placed a clutch second in her debut by just .45 while junior Katherine Pan (Livonia, Mich. / Detroit Country Day) and freshman Yi Lin (West Haverstraw, N.Y. / North Rockland) earned 27 points in fifth and sixth. Another heartbreaking second-place Medley Relay followed, though Deng's 24.92 butterfly split turned heads all around the deck. Charlotte Zhang quickly removed the bitter taste of that race with a 10-second victory and program record in the 400 IM, with Shi nabbing a strong third place. Vivian Zhang finished yet another hard-luck second despite posting the third-fastest 200 Back in the SCIAC this season, though Swint drew the most attention with a dominant performance in the heat prior, shaving nine full seconds off her previous season best. Lee and Okodogbe then posted a pair of impressive time drops in the 100 Free, with Lee trimming nearly two seconds while Okodogbe chopped almost three to go under the 1:00 mark for the first time in her life.
Charlotte Zhang doubled up on her impressive day with another victory in the 200 Breast, pulling ahead of her Oxy opponent at the 150-yard mark and extending the lead down the stretch for a program-record 2:26.01 before Deng showed out with an incredible 200 Fly 'B' cut time that also ranks seventh in the nation. The Beavers closed out the meet with another major highlight as the 400 Free Relay team, despite again placing second, recorded the 12th-fastest time in the country this season as Deng led off with a 53.54, Vivian Zhang notched a 54.56 second split, Hong swam a 55.25 on the third leg and Charlotte Zhang anchored with an exceptional 53.16.
Head Coach Andrew Brabson and the Beavers will enter their toughest training period of the season to bookend Winter Recess before returning to competition at Whittier College on Jan. 8.
