Eric Pedack (, ) won the 200 butterfly and finished third in the 200 backstroke as the swim teams concluded competition at the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships Saturday night at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool.
Pedack was just eight-tenths of a second off Chris Coley’s school record in the 200 butterfly, winning the event in 1:50.95. The freshman also finished third in the finals of the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:54.30. Bryson Chiu (), unable to compete in the finals of the 200 backstroke due to event limitations, still posted a school record in the morning preliminaries with a time of 1:51.83.
Chiu was involved in one of the closest finishes during the final night of the championship meet. In the 200 breaststroke, he finished second by just 27/100ths of a second with a time of 2:02.37. Doug Djang () finished third in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:05.51 and later led off the 400 freestyle relay that included Jeff Tibbals (Moscow, Idaho), Jordan Anderson (Newberg, Ore.), and Chris Fulton (Snohomish, Wash.) and finished third in 3:02.86, a new school record.
James White (El Cajon, Calif.) finished fifth in the 1650 freestyle with a time of 16:20.43, with Andrew Martinez earning a tenth place finish with a time of 16:35.99. Behind Pedack in the 200 backstroke, Jeff Hockema (, ) finished eighth in 1:58.36, and Andrew Miron () placed 13th in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:12.73.
In the men’s 100 freestyle, was the team’s top finisher, placing sixth in 46.24 seconds, with finishing eighth in 46.63 seconds. Tibbals finished in tenth in 46.65 seconds, and Garrett Nugent () earned a 15th-place finish with a time of 47.15 seconds. In the final team standings, finished in fourth place with 1,078.5 points.
On the women’s side, Alexis Morehouse () had the best individual finish of the evening, finishing fifth in the 200 breaststroke in 2:22.99. Connie Rae Shobaken (, ) finished in sixth place in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:09.34, and the foursome of Elizabeth Hanohano (, ), Hayley Cobb (, ), Kelsey Henan (, ), and Hanna Basler () finished fifth in the 400 freestyle relay in 3:35.84.
was the team’s top finisher in the 1650 freestyle, finishing in 13th place in 17:57.79, followed by Casey Hoffman () in 15th place in 18:00.91 and Shobaken in 17th place in 18:15.30. Sarena Hobson () finished in 15th place in the 200 backstroke in 2:12.80.
Basler earned a tenth place finish in the 100 freestyle with a time of 53.10 seconds, followed by Hanohano in 15th place in 54.12 seconds, Tina Nguyen () in 20th place in 54.96 seconds, and Megan Lavin (Kalispell, Mont.) in 24th place in 55.66 seconds. As a team, the women finished in seventh place with 550 points.
Those swimmers who have met qualifying standards will compete in the American Short Course Championships March 5-7 in . The rest of the team will look to improve for the 2009-10 season.