Men finish Second, Women fifth at PCSC Championship

Wednesday, February 16

St. George, UT

UC Santa Cruz Athletics

Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference Championship

2/20/2022 12:32:00 PM | Women's Swim and Dive, Men's Swim and Dive

Crawford named men's Coach of the Meet; Twelve school records set over the four days

St. GEORGE, UT - The last day of the PCSC Championships brought entertainment, accolades and late drama.
In the end, one of closest and craziest finishes in Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference history sent everyone home breathless with Concordia-Irvine leaping from third place to first with a final-day total of 731 points, edging by UC Santa Cruz who finished with 729.5 and Biola with 727.
It's the third top-two finish in the last four years for the UC Santa Cruz men. Matt Crawford was named Men's Coach of the Meet, his second such honor in three full seasons as UC Santa Cruz's head coach.

The big finish saw Concordia place second in the 400 Free Relay in 3:02.09, while UC Santa Cruz was fourth. Concordia scored 34 points in the meet's final event to the Banana Slugs' 30, producing the final margin.
The final day saw UC Santa Cruz's Presley Golling finish second in the 1650 Free in 16:11.16. Adam Shaaban was fifth in 16:21.74.
Aaron Wu (1:54.94), Jack Schertler (1:55.87) and Giovanni Wenzler (1:56.51) finished fourth, fifth and eighth in the 200 Yard Butterfly. John Madden broke the school record in the 200 Back in 1:50.20 to place second. It was 2.44 seconds better than Scott Marsic's mark from 1997.

The women finished fifth overall with 857.5 points. Division I Pepperdine won the title with 1476.5 points, followed by Cal State East Bay with 1370.
Brecken Theders opened the final day with a runner-up placing in the 1650 Free in 17:46.84. Aly Roberts was fifth in 17:52.12. Senior Elisabeth Lundgren broke her own school record in the 200 back with a time of 2:03.89 to place third. Maddy Gruender set her third school record of the meet- and one of 12 by both squads this week, with a time of 52.21 in the 100 Free, placing sixth. Gruender was also in the 4x100 Free relay, teaming with Isobel Blue, Tereza Shea and Lundgren to finish in 3:31.48, good for fifth.
It was the highest scoring outing for the women at Conference since 2012.
"This team brought be so much pride this week not only in how fast they swam but how strongly they supported each other," said Lundgren. "I truly can't thank our coaches enough for this fantastic season! "

The Banana Slugs find out early this week who qualified for the NCAA Championships that are scheduled a month from now in Indianapolis.