Nov. 8, 2008
IRVINE, Calif. - San Diego State came up on the short end of a pair of dual meets as it fell to Brigham Young (81-22) and UNLV (60-53) that came as part of the Anteater Shootout hosted by UC Irvine on Saturday. The losses dropped the Aztecs' record to 3-4 overall on the season and 2-4 in the Mountain West Conference.
At the meet, SDSU swam with athletes from Stanford, Hawai'i, Pepperdine and UC Davis in addition to BYU and UNLV. Although all of those teams were scored in dual meets against the other five, the Aztecs swam only against the Cougars and Rebels.
Due to the number of teams involved, the each dual competition was scored 5-3-1 for first, second and third place in the individual events and seven points for a winning relay. There were 11 individual events and a pair of relays for a total possible score of 113 points.
San Diego State's top results on the day included a pair of times by freshmen in two events that were good enough to be included on the SDSU all-time top 10 lists.
In the 200 breaststroke, Jeanette Engzell took fourth place (of 31 swimmers) with a time of 2:19.80. Not only was it a season best, it was also the second-fastest time ever posted in the event by an Aztec. Engzell's time was .74 seconds faster than her previous season best which was the third-best time in Aztec history.
Bojana Duric's mark of 10:23.87 in the 1000 freestyle ranks as the fourth-fastest time ever by an Aztec in that event as she finished sixth of 20 competitors. Earlier this fall she had turned in the eighth-fastest time (10:29.38) in the 1000, improving that mark by over five seconds. Duric also took seventh (of 26) in the 500 free in a time of 5:04.72, just .25 seconds shy of her season best.
Other notable finishes for the Aztecs included a seventh-place by junior Jessica Morrill in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:23.60. In the 200 backstroke, freshman Kelsey Diener was sixth of 33 swimmers, completing the race in 2:06.43.
In addition, five swimmers turned in season bests in their specialties. That group included Jamie Vessey in both the 50 free (25.41) and 200 butterfly (2:12.46), Shaida Solimani in the 200 free (1:57.28), Alexandra Rogers in the 200 backstroke (2:14.91), Lisa Tompkins in the 200 breaststroke (2:30.66) and Engzell in the 200 individual medley (2:13.24).
In the one-meter diving, Caitlin Atkinson set a season best with a score of 253.60, good for fifth among the 25 athletes competing. Teammate Alex Barstad finished 10th. Atkinson repeated her fifth-pace finish in the three-meter at 241.05 with Barstad right behind her in sixth (222.25).
San Diego State will now have four weeks before their next meet at Cal State Bakersfield on Saturday, December 6, at 1:00 p.m. (PST) at the Roadrunners' Hillman Aquatic Center in Bakersfield.