The Pepperdine University women’s swimming and diving team dominated the two opening meets of the season. Eleven personal best times were achieved and a school record was broken. The team will compete at home for the first time this season on Oct. 25 at the Malibu Invitational.
Sophomore Kayleen Hicks’ school record in the 100-yard breaststroke and 17 personal bests from 11 competitors carried the Pepperdine University women’s swimming and diving teams to a pair of team titles at this past weekend’s PCSC Relay and Pentathlon meets at the Cal Baptist Swim Complex.
The Waves, winners of these season-opening meets the last two years, scored 273 points at Friday’s relay meet and 704 at Saturday’s pentathlon. Loyola Marymount was runner-up both days with 225 and 546.5 points, respectively.
Hicks broke the varsity record Friday night while leading off the 300-yard breaststroke relay with a time of 1 minute, 5.17 seconds. The three-woman relay that also featured senior Sara Kallman and junior Dani Kimmel on anchor was victorious with a time of 3:20.02, beating the Cal Baptist squad by more than 10 seconds.
Pepperdine’s victory in the 300-yard breaststroke relay was one of four on the night. The Waves also were triumphant in the 400-yard medley relay, and the 1- and 3-meter diving competitions. Sophomore Francesca Cyphers, who was on the medley relay team, led the Waves with three personal best times at the meet, including the 100-yard individual medley (1:02.64), 100-yard butterfly (57.72) and the 50-yard breaststroke (1:11.50).
Pepperdine also swept the top three spots in each springboard diving event. Sophomores Shannon Hedman and Tiffany Martz combined for 394.20 points in winning the 1-meter title and 388.55 points in taking the 3-meter crown.
The Pepperdine divers continued to make an impression through Saturday’s events as all six finished among the top eight in the biathlon. Senior Amanda Pond was the team’s top finisher with a second-place 1-meter total of 207.84 points, and was third on 3-meter with 198.40 points.
In the pool, Kimmel was first in the sprint/IM pentathlon and senior Haley Wilson was No. 1 in the middle distance/IM pentathlon. Kimmel’s times included first-place marks of :30.04 in the 50-yard breaststroke and 1:01.08 in the 100-yard IM, plus a :27.09 in the 50 butterfly, a :29:38 in the 50-yard backstroke and a :24.66 in the 50-yard freestyle. Wilson won the 200 IM in 2:11.65 and tied for first-place with LMU’s Alicia Witter in the 100 free at: 54.18. Wilson also posted a 1:00.15 in the 100 fly, a 1:03.04 in the 100 back, a 1:10.83 in the 100 breast.
The Waves return to action in two weeks when they play host to the Malibu Invitational on Oct. 25 at 10 a.m.
-Pepperdine Sports Information