PASADENA, Calif. (Jan. 29, 2022) - An event sweep and leadoff relay victory highlighted the day for women's swim & dive as the Beavers challenged No. 8 Pomona-Pitzer Colleges in their penultimate dual meet of the season on a long Saturday.
Coming off their toughest stretch of the season between keeping yardage high while also competing weekly throughout January, Caltech's fatigue showed as few top times were posted, though most races were swam competitively to bode well for the impending SCIAC Championships in fewer than three weeks.
Caltech also honored its graduating seniors in their final home meet - Olivia Grobowsky (Houston, Texas / Westside) and Isabel Swafford (Los Angeles, Calif. / Boise, Idaho).
The first swimming session opened up with a win for the Beavers 400-yard Medley Relay team of Swafford, freshmen Charlotte Zhang (San Diego, Calif. / Torrey Pines) and Catherine Deng (San Jose, Calif. / BASIS Independent Silicon Valley), and sophomore Brooke Williams (Clifton, Va. / Trinity Christian), who posted a 4:05.34 time to beat out Pomona-Pitzer's "A" squad by less than half a second. Swafford, Deng and sophomore Vivian Zhang (Green Brook, N.J. / Watchung Hills Regional) returned in the late 200 Back to post a clean sweep for the Beavers, though the meet already was well in hand for the Sagehens by that point. Deng too would go on to claim both the 100 Back and 400 IM for the Beavers' other individual wins.
The day began with the 1-meter diving event, as sophomore Katy Chu (Los Gatos, Calif. / Saint Francis) placed third overall with a score of 170.45 while junior Katherine Pan (Livonia, Mich. / Detroit Country Day School) and freshman Yi Lin (West Haverstraw, N.Y. / North Rockland) came in fourth and fifth, each beating out a Sagehen.
Charlotte Zhang finished first among the Beavers and third overall in the 1000 Free, with freshman Mila Hong (Palo Alto, Calif. / Saint Francis) also representing the Beavers in the race to earn a point. Sophomore Joy Shi (Rockville, Md. / Wootton) finished in third place and first among the Beavers in the 200 Free, followed by rookie Paulina Naydenkov (Santa Barbara, Calif. / Albuquerque Institute of Math and Science) and Grobowsky.
Deng won the first of her titles in the 100 Back event by about two seconds over the top finisher for the Sagehens before later taking the 400 IM by a mere .17, building a big lead in the opening butterfly leg before staving off a furious late freestyle charge.
After the break, Williams took third place in the 100 Free at 55.66, just shy of her personal best time. Hong notably posted a second-place finish in the 100 Fly, just off her season-best time as well. Caltech claimed another handful of points thanks to Vivian Zhang and sophomore Brea Swartwood (Mililani, Hawaii / Mililani) placing third and fourth in the 400 IM.
Head Coach Andrew Brabson and the Beavers will enter the early stages of their championship taper as they look ahead to their final, typically less intense, dual meet on Feb. 5 at the University of La Verne.
