by Mike Myers
Staff Writer
The University of La Verne men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams held their own at the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships Feb. 19-21 in Cerritos, finishing in fourth place.
Senior Jason Walters and sophomore Jared Carvito lead the men’s team to a fourth place finish by winning two events each.
The men finished with a team total of 242 points at the SCIAC championship meet. First place went to Redlands University with 619.5 points.
Carvito won both breaststroke events, taking first in the 100-yard breaststroke in a time of 59.19 and winning the 200-yard breaststroke in a time of 2:07.83.
“I personally feel like I did a good job, but I still didn’t swim up to my expectation,” Carvito said.
Walters closed out his SCIAC career at the University of La Verne in a victorious fashion by capturing the 100-yard backstroke in a time of 53.18 and the 200-yard backstroke in a time of 1:54.38. Walters closed out his career winning eight of 12 conference championship races in four years.
The men’s team also set three new school records at the meet.
The relay team of Ryan Jensen, Owen Barrett, Carvito and Walters set a new school record when it finished fourth place in the 200-yard freestyle relay and 400-yard freestyle relay with a times of 1:27.55 and 3:14.36, respectively.
“It feels good knowing that we set a new record, but we feel we could have done better,” Barrett said.
Walters also broke a school record in his 100-yard freestyle race.
“Walters is going to be a big loss,” head coach John Hallman said. “He is the most talented swimmer to ever come to La Verne.”
The women’s swimming and diving team also ended up in fourth place in SCIAC, tallying 318.5 total points in the three day meet.
Claremont-Mudd-Scripps took first place with 897.5.
The women’s team also broke three school records at the SCIAC meet. The relay team of Jessica Egbert, Morgan Delaney, Marissa Garcia and Kristin McKown set a new school record when they finished the 200-yard medley relay in a time of 1:54.73 for fourth place.
The same women took third place in the 400-yard medley relay and set a new school record with a time of 4:09.39.
In a fifth place finish, Delaney also set a new school record in the 100-yard breaststroke, finishing in 1:09.59.
