MONTEREY PARK - The UC Santa Cruz swimming and diving teams closed their Fall season at the La Verne Winter Invite, The men's team finished first while the women were sixth after the three-day event.

On the men's side, UC Santa Cruz scored 715 points on the last day to surge past Simon Fraser and finish with 1719 points. SFU was second with 1524.5 and Biola was third with 1388.
"It was a great meet for the Slugs," said head coach Matt Crawford.  "After a slow start, the team got better every session, capping the meet with three event wins in the final night."

Standouts in Saturday's Finals included:
John Madden was 3rd in 400 IM in 4:05.86,
Samuel Smith took 3rd in 200 Free 1:41.94,
Ethan Porter broke his school record in the 100 Back in 51:25, placing 3rd.
Smith, Madden, Massimo Reyna and Matthew Minshall teamed up for 4th in the 800 Free in 6:56.19.

The momentum continued Sunday with Madden winning the 200 Back, and Joey Cairns winning the 100 IM. Reyna was also 3rd in the 100 Free for his third top-seven finish.

For the women, the Banana Slugs improved by two spots and finished with 719.5 points, edging PCSC rival Concordia to sixth place by five points. School record holder Elisabeth Lundgren won the 200 Back on Sunday. Maddy Gruender set a new school record in the 100 IM in 59.68. On Saturday, Coralie Norenberg was sixth in the 100 Back with Lundgren placing eighth. That along with Kaitlyn Armstrong puts the three fastest Backstrokers in school history all on the same team.

"There were a lot of promising swims from our new swimmers, and the veterans really rose to the occasion," Crawford said.  "The backstroke group stood out with captains Lundgren and John Madden each winning the 200 back, and Porter breaking his own program record in the 100 back.  Maddy's 100 IM record was another fun highlight, with her breaking 1:00 for the first time. The whole weekend was punctuated by the men's team winning their first winter invite meet in commanding fashion."
The meet was held at the same site where the PCSC Conference Championship happens in February.