Kingsmen Knocked Off by Stags

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – The Cal Lutheran  men’s swimming and diving team could not keep their win-streak going as they fell to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps 157-83 Saturday afternoon at the Samuelson Aquatics Center.

The Kingsmen got off to a great start by winning the first swimming event of the day, the 200 Medley Relay. Aaron Waters, Conrad Sheffer, Kyle Eckhart, and Tyler Berg teamed up to give CLU the winning time of 1:38.81, two seconds faster than the second place team. Waters got the race started with the back before Sheffer used a smooth breaststroke leg to dissolve the Stags lead, giving Eckhart an advantage entering the water for the butterfly before Beg closed it out with the free.

Sheffer would continue the strong swimming, becoming the only Kingsmen swimmer to win any individual events today.  He placed first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:00.75 while teammates Anthony Nguyen (1:02.77) finished third and Zachary Kaija (1:04.11) was fifth. Sheffer nearly had his third win of the day in the 100 free, finishing less than second (48.83) behind first place finisher Cameron Whiting.

Ryan Brem dominated the one-meter dive competition, placing first with a score of 210.15, some 45 points more than second place. Brem came close to sweeping the diving events, falling by just 1.5 points to Julian Laguisma in the three-meter dive competition with a 164.25. Kevin Schultz and Andrew Kirk placed third and fourth on the one-meter board, respectively, with a 159.95 and 135.40, while Kirk was third on the three-meter board with a 152.25.

Cal Lutheran was strongly represented in the 1650 free where Kaija (18:19.25) finished second, Mike Potter (18:22.65) came in third, and Derrick Graham (18:35.81) placed fourth. Graham and Philip Anderson added to the CLU team tally with third and fifth place finishes in the 500 free. Graham swam a 5:08 flat with freshman Anderson completing the race in 530.07.

In the 200 Individual Medley, Waters came in second with a time of 2:05.38 and Nuygen garnered his second third place finish of the day, clocking a 2:08.38. Nuygen also earned CLU points in the 200 free, swimming a 1:53.40.

The 50 free saw four Kingsmen swim stroke-for-stroke with Berg leading the pack. He finished in 22.01 for third followed by Eckhart (22.54), David Sparks (22.95) and Chase Miller (23.00) who was just out of scoring position for CLU.

Miller and Sparks pulled into the wall a tenth of a second apart in the 100 free with Miller placing fourth in 50.11 just ahead of Sparks (50.21). Eckhart scored for Cal Lutheran in the 100 fly with a time of 54.17 and Waters also earned points for the Kingsmen, with a 56.63 race in the 100 back.

The meet concluded with a pair of points in the 200 Free Relay as Miller, Graham Jameson Jr., Mason Hill and Anderson combined for a time of 1:35.36.

Cal Lutheran (1-3) will look to get back on the winning track Saturday, Jan. 19, when they travel to Whittier to take on the Poets. The meet is set to start at 10:30 a.m.

Results: CMS 157, CLU 85|
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