Nov 2, 2013
The CMS Stags and Athenas won seven of ten events en route to a team victory at the Whittier Co-ed Relays on Saturday. The four-team competition featured a unique set of relays, each of which alternated male and female competitors.
CMS opened the 200 yard medley relay with an explosive first leg. Freshman Matthew Williams’ 50 yard backstroke leg of 23.62 slipped under the CMS record split of 23.72 set at last year’s NCAA Division III Championships by 2013 SCIAC Swimmer-of-the-Year, Blake Weber. Emily McKinnon, Marc Blumberg and Helen Liu used the momentum to win the event by .34 seconds.
“Matt had a great 200 medley relay lead-off for us last week at UCSD, but we knew that he was capable of a cleaner race,” said CMS Head Coach Charlie Griffiths. “A sharper turn today led to a new personal record for Matt and a Stag team record…A fantastic way to start the day.”
Four different CMS swimmers then swam to victory in the 50-100-150-200 yard freestyle crescendo relay. Joey Hinton, LillyBelle Deer, Cameron Whiting and Michele Kee clocked at 4:31.28 in the event.
After a second place finish in the 8 x 50 breaststroke relay, CMS rebounded with a five-second victory in the 8 x 50 butterfly relay. Patrick Shultz, Annika Jessen, Hinton, Helen Liu, Jonah Breslow, Erin MacLean, Williams and Kee swam the 400 yards of butterfly in 3:22.13. CMS earned second in the 4 x 100 free relay and then posted a 1-2-3 finish in the 8 x 50 backstroke relay. Graham Spurzem, Stephanie Doi, Williams, Jessen, Cory Johnson, Kelly Ngo, Martin Sartorius and Liu broke 3:30 in the race, hitting the touchpad in 3:29.70.
CMS won the next two non-traditional relays. The 8 x 100 IM relay of Tim Storer, MacLean, Zach Alleva, Dana Shaker, Breslow, Deer, Matt Valentine and Maya Kale finished over 7 seconds ahead of the second place team. The next race proved to be an exciting splash-and-dash, with Whiting, Kee, Sartorius, Liu, Williams, Ngo, Spurzem and Doi sprinting to a win in the 8 x 25 yard freestyle relay. CMS then placed second and third in the penultimate event, 4 x 200 freestyle relay.
The Stags and Athenas capped the day with win in the mixed 4 x 50 freestyle relay. Whiting, Kee, Williams and Ngo finished first in 1:32.87.
“We had fun today,” Coach Griffiths said. “Swimming fast on relays is part of the DNA of a CMS swimmer, so getting to swim four or five relays in day puts a big smile on everyone’s face, especially in the midst of our November training load.”
Final scores on the day were CMS: 610, PP 532, Whittier 310, Chapman 290. The CMS swimmers will be back in action on Saturday, November 9 at the University of Redlands Pentathlon. Competition is slated to begin at 9:00 a.m.
The above is a press release taken from the CMS Athletic Website. For complete meet results, click here.