Nov. 1, 2008
SAN DIEGO - San Diego State, led by three first-place finishes from Brooke Vessey, defeated Fresno State, 153-126, Saturday afternoon at the Aztec Aquaplex. SDSU recorded the top times in 10 of 14 swimming events as well as the top point totals in both diving competitions to defeat the Bulldogs. With the victory, the Aztecs improved to 3-2 on the season while Fresno State, in its first season of NCAA Division I competition, dropped to 0-3.
SDSU opened the meet by taking the top two places in the 200-yard medley relay with the team of Alexis McCoy, Lisa Tompkins, Allison Hall and Shaida Solimani winning with a time of 1:53.93. They came in just one-hundredth of a second faster than the Aztec foursome of Alexandra Rogers, Elisabeth Krueger, Brooke Vessey and Jeanette Engzell.
Kyla Power added to San Diego State's score by winning the next event, the 1000 freestyle, in 10:48.30. It was the first of two top finishes on the afternoon for Power, who also won the 100 butterfly with a mark of 59.41.
Vessey's first-place finishes began with a 25.12 in the 50-yard freestyle. After a short break, she came right back to capture the 100 freestyle in 54.52 seconds. Her third win of the day came in the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:11.72. San Diego State's other double first-place finisher came in the person of Jessica Morrill, who won both the 200 butterfly ((2:15.68) and 500 freestyle (5:17.27).
SDSU's other victories in the individual swimming events were recorded by Bojana Duric in the 200 freestyle (1:57.57) and Lisa Tompkins in the 100 breaststroke (1:10.88). Both of those swimmers were involved on winning teams with Duric a member of the victorious 400 free relay squad and Tompkins swimming a leg for the 200 medley relay quartet.
In the diving, junior Alex Barstad turned in the top scores in both the one-meter and three-meter events with marks of 240.67 and 238.80 respectively. Both scores represented season highs for the junior transfer from Minnesota. Teammate Megan Flanagan turned in her season best in the one meter diving (231.07) and tallied 225.90 points in the three-meter event.
Up next for the Aztecs is a trip to Irvine next Saturday (Nov. 1) where they will compete in double-dual Mountain West Conference competition against Brigham Young and UNLV starting at 9:00 a.m. (PST). That meet will come as part of the UC Anteater Shootout being hosted by UCI during the weekend.