Justin Ries
Staff Writer
The men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams held their first home meet of the year on Saturday morning at the La Verne Aquatic Center with a dual meet against Redlands.
La Verne is coming off losses in both the men’s and women’s sides against Lewis and Clark in Portland, Oregon, on Oc. 18. The men’s team lost, 128-47, and the women’s team lost, 103-78.
La Verne’s teams are both young going into this year. On the women’s side, they have one senior, Lindsey Habegger. On the men’s side, the lone senior is Demetre Figueroa.
“It was really good for our very young team, especially on the women’s side,” head coach Pat Skehan said. “We raced really well and got a couple of wins, and we were right there a whole lot of the time, so that will help us down the long run.”.
With several of the men’s swimmers out due to being in season with water polo, La Verne loses opportunities to earn team points during races since opponents often have more swimmers in the race. Once the water polo season is over, these additional members will help make an impact on the team.
“I felt they went alright for a midseason meet,” sophomore swimmer Gabe Graceffa said. “They are not going to be the fastest but they shouldn’t be the slowest and I think it is just another chance to train.”
La Verne had strong performances from both programs in this meet.
In the first event, the women’s 200 medley relay, La Verne’s A team placed second. The team was composed of sophomore Neve Dagdagan, freshman Jedida Alvarez, sophomore Keilani Greer and anchored by senior Lindsey Habegger.
Habegger later swam the women’s 200 freestyle and placed second with a time of 2:07.69. Habegger kept pace with Redlands freshman swimmer Kaile Itow, who went on to win the race, for several of the lengths of the pool, but finished three seconds behind Itow.
Sophomore swimmer Jaden Feliciano swam the men’s 200 freestyle. Although he finished third with a time of 1:53.58, the race was close right up until the end.
Dagdagan competed in the women’s 100 backstroke. She was the only swimmer for La Verne to participate in this event and was leading during the race but fell just short at the end with a time of 1:05.06 only .09 seconds behind the first-place finisher.
“I felt OK,” sophomore swimmer Neve Dagdagan said. “I think this week was really hard training-wise, so I was not as confident as I wanted to be, but I knew that they’re my events so I knew I would do pretty good in them.”
Alvarez was one of three swimmers for La Verne to swim the women’s 100 breaststroke. She was in third after her split but in the second half of the race, she was able to get a strong kick to allow her to come back and take second.
The men’s 500-yard freestyle was one of the best races of the day. Feliciano was constantly going back and forth with Redlands freshman David Basa for the lead. In the end, Basa took the win while Feliciano finished 0.26 seconds behind.
“I wasn’t feeling too good earlier in the meet. I was kind of in a head space that was negative and before that 500 I just told myself that I was going to get out there and race and have fun,” Feliciano said. “So as things got down to the wire I was just like whatever happens happens. Give it my all and hope for the best.”
La Verne will be back at home at 10 a.m. Saturday against Pomona-Pitzer and Occidental.
Justin Ries can be reached at justin.ries@laverne.edu.
Justin Ries is a junior journalism major with a concentration in broadcast journalism, and is a staff writer for the Campus Times.
Chris Rodriguez is a senior photography major and photo editor of the Campus Times.
