Regals Finish Sixth at Championships

LA MIRADA, Calif. – Rounding out the 2013 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Swimming and Diving Championships hosted by Redlands at Splash! La Mirada, Cal Lutheran sent a trio of swimmers to final heats as the Regals placed sixth.

Opening up the final day of competition, sophomore distance swimmer, Mimi Harbach earned her second trip to the podium with a 1650 free swim of 17:40.00, which was more than 40 seconds faster than her previous best this season, and just two hundredths of a second shy of an NCAA “B” cut. She entered the race seeded fourth and moved up a spot to earn All-SCIAC recognition. Earlier this weekend Harbach was third in the 500 free.

Shelby Brooks and Kelli Miller both advanced to championship finals on day three as well. Brooks swam the 200 backstroke in a time of 2:10.52 to move up one spot and finish seventh after a morning swim of 2:11.15 to be seeded eighth.

After earning a trip to the consolation heat of the 100 breaststroke last night, Miller represented the Regals in the 200 breast final, placing seventh as she improved her time to 2:27.26 after earning the eighth and final spot in the race with a morning swim of 2:29.31.

Freshman Katie Kochalko nearly qualified for her second SCIAC championship race, but finished one spot out of contention in her preliminary swim in the 200 butterfly with a time of 2:11.05. She swam faster in the consolation final, clocking in at 2:10.97, but dropped a spot to 10^th.  

In the preliminaries this morning there were a number of notable performances, starting with senior Cortney Jordan setting a Paralympic American S7 record in the 200 backstroke with a time of 2:39.88. She was a second off breaking her own record in the 200 butterfly with at time of 2:46.69 to place 23^rd.

Karissa Winkler was five hundredths of a second from being named the second alternate in the 100 free, touching the wall in 55.53. Taylor Faust and Sarah Forsythe were also top-25 finishers, placing 22^nd and 25^th, respectively, in 56.01 and 56.36. Brooke Hubbard finished 30^th in the 100 free (58.39) preliminary, which was her final collegiate individual race.

The weekend came to a close with the 400 Free Relay team of Julianna Rios, Harbach, Kochalko and Winkler combining to swim a 3:39.07, to touch the wall fifth.

Cal Lutheran finished the three-day event in sixth place with 287.5 points. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps was crowned SCIAC champions with a total of 919 points, followed by PP (745.5), UR (486), OXY (467) and CU (359). Rounding out the field were WC (268), ULV (156) and CIT (130).

Caroline Chang from Occidental was named the 2013 Female Athlete of the Year.

Results: Day 3 Finals
Results: Day 3 Preliminaries
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