PASADENA, Calif. – Caltech Athletics capped an action-packed Homecoming day with the first nighttime swim & dive meet in recent years, as the Beavers hosted the men's and women's teams from SCIAC rival Occidental College and Biola University of NCAA Division II.
The evening began with 3-meter diving in the Braun Pool, where Caltech's
Aaban Syed posted a 172.20, besting the next best diver from Oxy by over 30 points. On the women's side,
Jana Woo finished second with a score of 246.50, just two and a half points behind the winner from Biola. Both Beaver divers competed in the 1-meter dive contest in the adjacent Alumni Pool later, where again Syed took fourth with a score of 183.45, a big improvement over his seed score of 166.10 and over 50 points ahead of the fifth-place diver. Woo did even better on the lower board for 255.95, claiming second behind the same Division II opponent and earning an NCAA Regional Cut for the second consecutive year.
The Caltech swimmers post numerous all-time top-10 times throughout the night, beginning right off the bat in the 200-yard Medley Relay.
Marcel Liu started with backstroke, followed by
Evan Zhang with the breaststroke and
Leo Yang swimming the butterfly. Anchor
Jeffrey Zhou finished with freestyle and the foursome posted a 1:33.73 first-place time, ranking eighth all-time in Caltech history. Finishing in 1:37.04 was another Caltech group of
Simon Hu,
Jason Lin,
Leo Jankovic and
Naci Keskin, claiming second place. Swimming in exhibition were Sidd Ojha,
Kevin Cai,
Brendan Kerns and
Sam Small, just a hair behind the B quartet with a 1:37.32 time and the third-fastest performance of the night, ahead of Biola's first squad to finish.
The Women's 200 Medley Relay team of
Allison Xin,
Grace Davis,
Beatrice Cai and
Isabel Xu clocked in at 1:53.07 for the eighth best Caltech Women's Swim & Dive all-time finish. Davis later recorded the fifth best 200-Yard Breaststroke time in program history, claiming second place in the meet in 2:33.43. Teammate
Cherise Wong swam into the number 7 spot all-time with her 2:35.12 time, finishing fourth on the night. Davis additionally took second in the 100 Breaststroke with a time of 1:10.93, good enough for 6
th all-time in that event. On the men's side,
Jason Lin and
Kevin Cai finished in first and second, respectively, Lin clocking in just under a minute at 58.89 seconds and Cai very close behind at 59.09. Kevin later took 9
th all-time with his win in the 200, posting a 2:12.07 finish.
More top-10s came from Xin, with a number-10 finish in the 200-Yard Backstroke after 2:16.77, placing fourth overall and first among the evening's Division III swimmers.
Karen Zhou and
Beatrice Cai then raised the bar in the 200-Yard Individual Medley, trailing only the D2 Biola swimmers with times of 2:15.13 and 2:18.28 — sixth and 10
th all-time for Caltech, respectively.
Finally, the Men's 200-Yard Freestyle Relay quartet of Zhang, Liu, Zhou and Yang grabbed the number 10 Caltech all-time spot with a time of 1:25.39 for first place in the event. Teammates Keskin, Small, Ojha and Jankovic followed with a second-place, 1:28.02 finish.
In all, Caltech's women defeated Occidental 177-112, and the men picked up both possible wins as they beat Oxy 210-77 and Biola 152-142.
Head Coach Andy Brabson and the Beavers will return to action in a dual meet at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges on Saturday, Nov. 11.
