Sept. 18, 2015
San Diego State senior swimmers Shannon Herman and Savannah Miller finished in a dead heat to tie for the individual title at the annual SDSU-USD Pentathlon meet held Friday afternoon at the Aztec Aquaplex. The duo helped lead the Aztecs to a 33-24 victory over the Toreros as SDSU was victorious for the sixth consecutive season at the meet that was first staged in 2010.
The Pentathlon consisted of five events including the 100 free, 100 fly, 100 back, 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley with this year's meet being conducted in the Long Course Meter (LCM) format rather than the traditional yardage distances. Total times in the five swims determined individual placings with the top three finishers from each school scoring points (12-11-10-9-8-7).
Herman and Miller proved to be the meet's most consistent performers over the five events as each finished with a total time of 7:11.38 in the five races. Heading into the finale event, the 200-meter individual medley, Herman held a .04 second lead over Herman for the meet's fastest total time. The duo would finish one-two in the IM with Miller's 2:29.32 just fast enough to edge out Herman's 2:29.36 to win the event and tie for the overall championship.
Third place in the overall meet went to SDSU's Lydia Pereverzina with a time of 7:12.12. The sophomore from Gresham Ore., was the individual winner in the 100-meter breaststroke with a mark of 1:15.89 and also place fourth in the 200 IM in 2:31.34.
Senior Whitney Weisz turned in the top time in the 100-meter freestyle (59.05) while Summer Harrison captured the 100-meter butterfly title (1:03.47) and Natalie Ruiz took the 100-meter backstroke.
In addition to the top three overall places, San Diego State had five others finish among the top eight in total time for the pentathlon: Ruiz (4th ââ'¬" 7:18.03), Kate Santilena (5th ââ'¬" 7:18.15), Harrison (6th ââ'¬" 7:18.61), Cecilia Zaccarelli (7th ââ'¬" 7:19.64) and Rachael Kelch (8th ââ'¬" 7:20.43).
Following the Pentathlon events, the teams swam 50-meter races in each of the four events as well as the 400 freestyle, 400 IM and 200-meter races in each stroke. Aztec winners in those events included Santilena in the 50 back (31.80), Martina Marks in the 400 free (4:42.37) and Herman in the 400 IM (5:14.76). SDSU swimmers also captured first in each of the 200 meter races including Kelch in the butterfly (2:27.31), McKenna Garfein in the backstroke (2:28.82), Zaccarelli in the breaststroke (2:50.11) and Marina Preiss in the freestyle (2:!6.630.
San Diego State will continue its regular season in four weeks when it hosts Vanderbilt and Oregon State for a double dual meet on Thursday, Oct. 15, at noon at the Aztec Aquaplex.