February 16, 2008

Slug Swimming Finishes Regular Season at the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships

The UCSC swim team finished off its regular season last weekend at the PCSC Championships in Long Beach, CA.  The men finished third with 1318.5 points, and the women finished fifth with 812 points.  Both teams finished with their highest point total ever at the championships and both men and women finished as the top division three team.  The slug men were also the first D3 team to ever finish in the top three.  In the swimming portion of the meet alone, without counting the scores from diving, the slugs finished in second place, 2.5 points ahead of division 2 UCSD.

The slugs started the meet off well on the first night of competition. The 200 Medley relay team of Alex Miller, Kenton Drake, Ben Ferguson, and Troy Marcikic finished second in school history with a time of 1:35.56.  Later that night, the 800 free relay of Kenton Drake, Ben Ferguson, Troy Marcikic and Jamie Johnson won with a time of 6:49.81.  Sophomore Jamie Johnson anchored with split of 1:40.11 to pass rivals UC San Diego on the final lap for the win.

The next day marked the first day of individual competition. Sophomore Jamie Johnson finished second in the 500 free with the NCAA B-cut time of 4:36.34. Senior Captain Erin Hunter acquired an NCAA B-cut in the next event as she finished second in the 200IM with a time of 2:08.19.  Senior Kenton Drake also qualified for an NCAA B-cut with his fourth place finish in the 200IM (1:54.59).  In the final individual event of the day, Senior Troy Marcikic and Sophomore Ben Ferguson finished third (20.91) and fourth (20.92) respectively in the 50 freestyle.  The two are the only slugs in school history to be under the 21 second mark in the 50.  In the 200 Free Relay, the team of Ben Ferguson, Kenton Drake, Payam Saljoughian, and Troy Marcikic took second both in the meet and in school history with the time of 1:23.80. 

On the third day of competition, Senior Erin Hunter started the meet off with a win in the 400IM.  Her final time 4:27.98 was just off of her own school record in the event, but was good enough for the victory and an NCAA A-cut.  Jamie Johnson took second and achieved an NCAA B-cut in the 200 free (1:41.10) following his impressive relay split from earlier in the meet. Senior Mariko Ikehata broke the school record in the 100 backstroke with the NCAA B-cut time of 59.11.

The slugs finished the meet strong on the final day of competition.  In the 1650, sophomore Matt Nauman swam a lifetime best by almost 30 seconds to go 16:35.14.  Sophomore Ben Ferguson swam a best time in the 100 freestyle (45.54) to finish second in the event.  Erin Hunter finished third in the 200 breast with the time of 2:22.65.  Her time in that event currently ranks her first in all of Division 3.  A few heats later, Kenton Drake received an NCAA A-cut in the 200 breast (2:22.65).  The swim of the meet came in the final event, the 400 free relay.  Ben Ferguson, Kenton Drake, Jamie Johnson, and Troy Marcikic combined to go 3:04.18.  Their time won the event and also broke their own school record.  Troy Marcikic anchored with a time of 45.66 to hold off UC San Diego and win the event.

Senior Captain Payam Saljoughian stated that: “We had the best men’s team in school history this year and we definitely proved it at Conference.  Not only did we beat our conference rivals UCSD in two of the relays, but we beat them overall in the swimming portion of the meet.”  The slug swimmers have one more chance to better their times this weekend in the last chance meet.  Those who qualify for NCAA’s will continue to train before they head to Ohio in March.  Women’s NCAA’s are March 13-15, and men’s NCAA’s are March 20-22