Solid Opening Outing for Kingsmen

MALIBU, Calif. – At the Malibu Invitational hosted by Pepperdine the Cal Lutheran men’s swimming and diving team jumped back into the pool and the Kingsmen turned in some strong performances to start the season.

On Friday, CLU sent a trio of divers to compete with Ryan Brem winning the one-meter event as the only athlete to score more than 200 points with a 203.55. Joey Zielsdorf was second with a 183.10 and Kevin Schultz was third with a 148.60. Zielsdorf and Brem went on to place 1-2 as the only two divers on the three-meter boards with scores of 169.55 and 144.00, respectively.

Swimmers traveled across the canyon on Saturday to start their season and everyone swam multiple events.

In his first races for CLU Mike Fernandez swam a 2:09.02 in the 200 butterfly and a 2:32.87 in the 200 breaststroke.  He went on to swim the 200 Individual Medley in 2:05.39 to place sixth as the top Division III finisher. Additionally, Fernandez sprinted in the 50 backstroke (30.41), 50 breast (32.32), 100 fly (58.81) and 100 breast (1:10.77).  

Making their collegiate debuts today were Andy Nguyen and Dominic Barriere. In the 200 backstroke Nguyen swam a 2:13.24 and Barriere went a 2:19.66. Later in the day Nguyen swam the 50 fly (26.92), 50 breast (32.33), 50 free (24.17), 100 back (1:01.57) and 200 IM (2:15.23). Barriere added the 50 back (30.41), 50 free (26.25), 100 back (1:05.77), 100 free (59.83) and 200 IM (2:29.22) to his list today.

Anthony Nguyen (2:22.33), Zach Kaija (2:24.64) and Luis Burgos (2:31.39) all returned to swim the 200 breast. To start the season Chase Miller (1:51.43) and Tyler Berg (1:58.43) swam the 200 free. All five athletes went on to swim numerous other events.

Berg placed fifth in the 50 free (22.88) and sixth in the 50 fly (25.49) as the fastest Division III swimmer to the wall in both races. He went a 1:00.11 in the 100 fly and a 52.70 in the 100 free to round out his day.

Anthony Nguyen led CLU swimmers in the 50 breast with a time of 29.33, a shade ahead of Kaija (30.22). Nguyen and Kaija were fifth and seventh in the 100 breaststroke with times of 1:04.75 and 1:07.28, respectively. Miller was seventh in the 100 free (49.56) and 11^th in a field of 37 50 free stylers at 23.06, also turning in a top-10 finish in the 50 fly, clocking in at 26.24.

Returning to the pool after a hiatus was Richard Hegner who competed in the 100 fly, placing ninth in a time of 59.30.

Also suiting up for CLU today was Ethan Flyer who swam four events.

Cal Lutheran divers will be back on the boards in three weeks when the Kingsmen travel to Redlands for the Bulldog Invitational on Saturday, Nov. 16. Competition is set to begin at 10:00 a.m.

Results: Malibu Invitational
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