February 2, 2008

Slugs Challenge Division 1 Rival Cal Poly

SANTA CRUZ, CA --The slug swimmers finished off their regular season with a meet against Cal Poly.  Over the past few years these teams have become rivals despite the difference in athletic funding.  Cal Poly proved to be too much for the Slugs in the end, winning the men’s meet with a score of 178 to106, and women’s sides of the meet with a score of 201 to 98.  The meet was also the last dual meet for the seniors.  Prior to the meet, the seniors were announced and celebrated one by one for their dedication to the team over the last four years.  This year’s female graduating seniors were Melissa Anstett, Kira Bonomo, Erin Hunter, Mariko Ikehata, and Susan Suchomel.  The men graduated Kenton Drake, John Edwards, Troy Marcikic, Jason Martin, Chris Meyer, Andrew Miller, Evan Ranta, Payam Saljoughian, Derek Streichman, and Chris Wong.

The swim of the meet for the men came in the first individual event.  Freshman Evan Moore won the 1000 freestyle with a late charge after falling behind early.  His time of 10:05.35 was a season best time, and was one of four victories for the Banana Slug men. Sophomore Ben Ferguson had the other two individual victories for the slugs with his sweep of the sprint freestyle events.  He won the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.99, and took the 100 freestyle as well by going 47.59.  The final victory for the men came in the last event, the 200 freestyle relay.  The relay team of Kenton Drake, Ben Ferguson, Payam Saljoughian, and Troy Marcikic won with a time of 1:28.42, beating the mustangs by almost 2 seconds. 

For the women, Senior Erin Hunter won the 200 breast with a time of 2:25.34. Later in the meet she won a grueling 400IM. Freshman Karin Schleicher of Cal Poly put up a good fight, but Hunter came back to go 4:34.68 and win by 7 hundredths of a second.  Freshman Kate O’Neill stated: “It seems like it has been rainy and cold at every one of our meets this year, and this one was no exception.  It shows the character of our team though that we were still able to come out and swim well.”

Senior captain Payam Saljoughian added: “It is always fun swimming against Poly.  They are a Division 1 team and many of their swimmers have scholarships.  They don’t like losing to us and we love beating them.  It brings out the best in us and is always one of the most fun meets of the year.”  The slugs will travel to Long Beach, CA on February 12^th to compete at the Pacific Conference Swimming Championships.