UCD roundup: Aggies win first nine events to top Pacific

Leading Saturday’s home meet at the Schaal Aquatic Center from start-to-finish Saturday afternoon, the UC Davis swimming team defeated the visiting Pacific Tigers, 176.5-106.5, to earn its fifth-straight dual victory, improving its record this season to 5-2 in the process.

By winning the first nine straight events against the Tigers, the Aggies created a sizable advantage that only grew as the afternoon progressed. Led by sophomore Hilary Hunt and junior Haley Porter with two victories apiece, six different UCD swimmers won individual races.

Hunt posted top times in the 100 (58.00) and 200-yard (2:04.75) backstroke events, while Porter captured the 50 and 100 freestyle races in 24.41 and 53.44, respectively.

Other Aggie event-winners include junior Liliana Alvarez, who captured the 100 breaststroke in 1:05.28; sophomore Marilyn Carey, who clocked a 10:26.85 in the 1,000 free; junior Megan Leung, who posted a 2:06.08 in the 200 butterfly; and junior Samantha Shellem, who swam the 200 free in 1:52.39.

UCD swept three of the events to earn the maximum number of points allowed in a race. Bridget Bugbee, Katie Edwards, Lauren Damian, Karly Troup, Sam Rados and Sarah Luibel all posted top-three times for the Aggies in those events.

Freshman Lucy Lafranchise earned 18 points for the UCD cause by earning the top scores in both the 1- and 3-meter diving events. Posting a 253.35 in the one-meter, Lafranchise set a new season-high mark by posting a 272.05 in 1-meter competition, a score that is now the fourth highest recorded by an Aggie diver in the program’s history.

In both the 1- and 3-meter diving events, freshmen Hannah Tears (251.33/228.50) and Audrey DeNeffe (245.93/225.00) finished second and third.

Also this week, the UCD divers were participating in the Bruin Diving Invitational, which was mostly contested at the Spieker Aquatics Center in Los Angeles. Since the Aggies could not compete with a split squad Saturday afternoon, the diving teams recorded their scores at Schaal Aquatics Center earlier in the week.

Day 2 from the Bruin Diving Invitational saw four Aggies compete on the 1-meter board; sophomore Shannon Stewart led UCD by finishing 35th with a score of 199.60. Tears (191.95) and Lafranchise (191.10) took 41st and 42nd place, with junior Lauren Jesse (172.75) finishing her day in 48th place amongst a field of divers from some of the top swimming and diving programs in the country.

UCD gymnastics

Senior co-captain Michelle Ho captured individual meet wins on uneven bars for the second consecutive weekend and posted the program’s highest floor exercise score in almost nine years to help the Aggies to a 192.425 team score in Friday’s home opener against Cal. The visiting Golden Bears won the meet with a 194.575.

Ho, the reigning Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Gymnast of the Week, scored a 9.850 on uneven bars to outduel the Cal tandem of Dallas Crawford and Madisyn O’Brien, who each went 9.800. She closed out the meet with a 9.925 on floor, the highest by any UCD gymnast since Tiffany Chan tied the school record of 9.950 at the 2004 MPSF Championships.

The Aggies opened with a 48.500 on vault behind Anna Shumaker’s 9.800 and Katie Yamamura’s 9.825. Shumaker later added a third-place 9.725 on the balance beam.

UCD ended the meet with a 49.100 on floor exercise. Strong performances came from Ho, Taryn West (9.825) and Stephanie Stamates (9.825).