California Baptist University’s men and women’s swim and dive teams lost their last dual meet Feb.1 in a nail biter against the University of California, San Diego at the Lancer Aquatics Center.
Both the men’s and women’s teams showed impressive swims, losing by a close margin. The men lost with a score of 141-154 and the women, 140- 158.
“We might not have won the meet, but we lost in a very close meet to the No. 1 ranked (women’s) team in the country for DII,” said Rick Rowland, head coach of the swim and dive teams. “Both teams really came to compete that weekend.”
Rowland said the match was so close that if the men had won the first relay event of the meet they could have won the meet.
“We got out-touched (in the finish) by a tenth of a second,” Rowland said.
Both the men and women’s teams have less than two weeks before they compete in their season finale, which is the Western Athletic Conference Championships on Feb. 26.
Rowland said in the little time they have left, the team needs to work on key things such as explosiveness, turns off the wall and speed.
Alina Jungklaus, junior psychology major and individual medley swimmer, said the team is even more motivated because WAC championships are just around the corner, which means that the team will start tapering.
“(In taper period) we get time to recover physically, catch up on sleep, and get more energy (before going to the championships),” Jungklaus said.
Jungklaus said the last meets went well and served as a confidence boost for the team in this last stretch of their season.
“We need to stay in competitive shape and refine the little things,” Rowland said. “These little things make the difference between us touching someone out or getting out-touched.”
Christian Meyer, sophomore psychology major and freestyle swimmer, said the team is in good form after its last dual meet against UC San Diego.
“We only lost by a bit, despite not having our top swimmers, Robby Moseley, sophomore software engineering major, and Joe Molinari, junior psychology major,” Meyer said.
Rowland said this year the team has faced the most injuries and illnesses of the 20 years he has been coaching the team.
Meyer said he believes the University of Wyoming and Grand Canyon University will present the team’s toughest challenges in conference, but if the team continues to work hard they could perform well at the upcoming meets.
“We can score a lot of points from the shorter sprint events,” Meyer said. “Our swimmers in the longer distance events will be able to place high in the rankings, too.”
The Lancers hope to perform better during their final practices to ultimately bring home a title for CBU this season. The men’s and women’s swim and dive teams will be leaving for the WAC Championships in Houston, on Feb. 26.
