PASADENA, Calif. (Nov. 21, 2021) – Over arguably the most successful regular season performance in program history, the Beavers set 11 program records and recorded 13 national Top-15 finishes, including one top time in the entire country, in an overpowering display to defeat California Lutheran University and Occidental College this past weekend.
Though it flew under the radar as an unofficial performance, the quartet of freshman Max Oberg (The Woodlands, Texas / The Woodlands College Park) and sophomores Christopher Pukszta (Irvine, Calif. / Northwood), Leo Yang (Blacksburg, Va. / Blacksburg) and Naci Keskin (Istanbul, Turkey / Robert Coll. of Istanbul) collectively posted the nation's top composite time in the 800-yard Freestyle Relay. Oberg and Keskin went on to win all five other individual events in which they competed while Pukszta, Yang and several other Beavers recorded a litany of personal-best times while also lifting the other four relay teams to national Top-12 times of the season.
The meet opened with an exciting 400 Medley Relay where Caltech posted the 10th-fastest time in the country, though the California Lutheran team's pair of All-Americans carried the visitors to victory. The atmosphere that race created carried over into the next event coming out of a 20-minute break as Oberg, Pukszta and Yang posted a clear 1-2-3 finish in the 500 Free, with Oberg smashing the program record and looked to still have more left in the tank even as he finished in the 11th-fastest time in DIII while Pukszta came in just five seconds back with a 13-second drop. Sophomore Andrew Pasco (Haddonfield, N.J. / Bishop Eustace) and rookies Jake Goldman (Warrenton, Va. / Fauquier) and Pierre Zeineddin (Gaithersburg, Md. / Richard Montgomery) about matched the feat if not for All-American AJ Nybo with a 2-3-4 finish in the 200 IM to propel Caltech to a massive 218-167 lead through just three events.
The lid came off in the 50 Free when Keskin out-touched All-American Luke Rodarte by the thinnest of margins at .01, with sophomore Lucas Abounader (Austin, Texas / Liberal Arts and Science Acad.) a close third, rookie Sam Small (Ringwood, U.K. / Ringwood) tying for fourth and classmate Evan Zhang (Great Falls, Va. / Thomas Jefferson) placing seventh to mark the first time in regular season history the Beavers have had even three swimmers under 21.70 in the same race. Keskin then came right back with a blowout victory in the 200 Free where he led from start to finish with his first career NCAA 'B' cut time in a program-record 1:39.52 that ranks fourth in the country this season (just .52 out of first), with Oberg right behind him and just missing the cut with a 1:40.25. Yang followed in a close third (1:41.10) and Pukszta completed the event sweep in fourth (1:41.39) to form also form a composite 800 Free Relay time (6:42.26) that came in more than a second under the 2019 national championship invited time – without the benefit of the three relay takeoffs. Sophomore Tyler Mapes (Portland, Ore. / Franklin) also impressed in the 200 with a 2.5-second drop, as well as recording his best 50 time since March of 2020.
Freshman Jason Lin (Los Angeles, Calif. / Taipei American) took his turn next and though he could not keep pace with a potential NCAA-champion swim by Rodarte, his 56.20 was nearly two seconds ahead of teammate Zhang (57.96) and jut .14 shy of a 'B' cut, though still 13th in the nation this Fall. Sophomore Tao Zhang (Highlands Ranch, Colo. / Rock Canyon) nabbed a clutch fourth place with a .18 touchout against CLU and junior Joshua Lee (Santa Clarita, Calif. / Valencia) did the same to claim sixth by an even thinner margin. Zeineddin and Pasco led another 2-3 finish, each dropping significant time to touch within .02 of one another with Small shaving more than 1.5 seconds for fifth and Abounder scoring in seventh. The day closed with a dominant two-second 200 Free Relay win as Oberg, Small and Abounader averaged a shade over 21.0 per 50 before Keskin send the Beavers home for the evening with a rousing 20.57 anchor leg despite a significant lead upon entry. The Caltech 'B' relay also beat out the CLU team that included Nybo as the leadoff man, with Pukstza posting the highlight at a 21.14 clip.
A case of déjà vu struck to begin Day Two as CLU claimed the 200 Medley Relay by less than a second, though the Beavers' time of 1:31.79 was another program record and the 11th-quickest time in the nation as Oberg anchored in a program-record 20.33 freestyle split. Portending things to come over the rest of the morning, the Caltech 'C' relay team of Goldman, Tao Zhang, junior Shoonhsin Li (Horseheads, N.Y. / Horseheads) and Small beat out both CLU and Oxy 'B' relays to cover for the disqualified Caltech 'B' team for fourth place.
Goldman quickly set the tone for the rest of the day with a program-record 4:07.82 400 IM, followed by a four-second drop from Pukszta to narrowly claim the 200 Back by .20. Keskin promptly broke the program's oldest record, the 100 Free set back in 2015, while Small trimmed more than 1.5 seconds to place third ahead of teammate Abounader for a big 51-point haul. Mapes again posted a big time drop with a near two-second PR at 50.56, while senior Rafael Santiago (Manila, Philippines / Phillipine Science) beat his 2019 Caltech Invite 100 Free time by three-quarters of a second, getting back under 50.0 for the first time since 2020.
As impressive as those feats were, however, they only set the stage for perhaps the two most significant performances of the entire meet when Lin went toe-to-toe with Rodarte in a 100 Breast for the ages. The 18-year old rookie took his first 50 out .01 faster than the All-American and held close at the 100 mark, when Rodarte went into another gear where any onlooker would expect the accomplished sprinter to fade – yet instead he nearly matched that third split on his final leg to record the fastest time in the nation by almost two full seconds, with Lin two body lengths behind but still coming in with the sixth-fastest in the country at a program-record 'B' cut of 2:00.99. Tao Zhang got into the mix as well with a game final leg to out-touch another CLU swimmer at a near-PR of 2:09.69.
Not to be outdone, Zeineddin seta program record of his own with another statement victory over the All-American Nybo with the third-fastest 200 Fly in the country at 1:48.92. Pasco joined in the fun with a 1.5-second drop to place a clear third after swimming with Nybo for the first 100 before running out of gas on the back stretch to come within less than half a second of his PR. Yet again though, the next Beaver up stole the show as Oberg set two program records in the same race with the sixth-fastest mile time in DIII that included a program-record opening 1000, while Yang also came in 10 seconds under the record entering the race at 16:10.58. Junior Nathan McAlister (Reno, Nev. / Davidson Acad) and freshman Rohan Kolhe (Plano, Texas / Plano West Senior) filled out the event for another perfect top-four and 68-point bag to lead into the meet's final event, the 400 Free Relay.
Oberg led off against Rodarte and trailed the All-American by just .10 to hand the relay off to Pukszta in his first 'A' team appearance of the meet. The sophomore could not have taken more advantage of the opportunity, throwing down a meet-best 45.59 split that was a full two seconds faster than his previous PR to chase down CLU's other All-American, Nybo, and stake Abounader to a half-second lead before Keskin entered the water and pulled away for good at the final turn for the nation's sixth-fastest time at another program-record 3:04.92.
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.
