Freshmen phenomenon continues in the pool

The women ran their victories to five in a row with a win over San Diego State Friday night, 144-94. The win was the second straight over the Aztecs in just over a week for the swimmers. The Cougars began the meet with a one, two finish in the 200 medley relay and never looked back.

"We really started strong and then just cruised from there," women's head swimming coach Stan Crump said. "It was a good meet and San Diego swam much better than they did last week."

The women had another strong showing from their freshmen class with U-nice Chan picking up wins in the 200 free (1:53.70) and 100 fly (58.59), Angela Goodson winning in the 200 IM (2:09.53) with team mate Tara Bradshaw coming in second with a time of 2:10.07. The freshmen phenomenon also carried over onto the diving board where Angela Nelson pick up a first place finish on the 3-meter and a second place finish on the 1-meter.

The Cougars also had a fine showing from returning swimmers Natasha Schlup, Hannah Palmer and reigning conference swimmer of the week Brittany Davis. Schlup finished first in the 100 back (59.69) only a second ahead of second place finisher and team mate Carolyn Wigginton who touched the wall at 1:00.75.

Palmer swam to victory in the fastest event in the pool, the 50 free, with a time of 24.57. And Davis won her third straight victory in the 500 free with a time of 5:08.23.

Junior diver Aubrey Low also had a strong showing for the divers with a first place finish on the 1-meter.

The women will now travel to Las Vegas to face the Rebels of UNLV. The meet will be a combined meet with the men. The meet, which was originally scheduled for 1 p.m., has been moved up one hour to begin at noon.

"I think the meet with UNLV will be a bit closer than last year," Crump said. "We want to win, but we know it is always a tough trip, but I think we'll be okay."