Oct. 7, 2016
MALIBU, Calif. - San Diego State captured nine of 10 swimming events as well as the 1-meter diving as it defeated Pepperdine, 155-53, Thursday afternoon at Raleigh Runnels Memorial Pool in Malibu, Calif. The win improved the Aztecs record to 2-0 on the young season while the meet was the season opener for the Waves.
SDSU opened the contest by taking the top four spots in the 200 medley relay. The foursome of Alma Thormalm, Morganne McKennan, Frida Berggren and Cailey Steffens captured the event in a time of 1:46.70. They were just under a half-second better than the second-place Aztec quartet of Kate Santilena, Cecilia Zaccarelli, Summer Harrison and Peyton Wilson (1:47.17).
The remainder of the meet consisted of races of 50 and 100 yards in each of the four strokes plus a 500 freestyle. SDSU won eight of those nine events with the 500 free being the lone race in which they did not finish first.
Six different Aztecs were event winners with two of those athletes, both newcomers to SDSU, ending as double winners.
Alexa Clayfield, a junior by way of Orange Coast Junior College, won both the 50 and 100 backstroke with times of 27.29 and 58.10 respectively. Freshman Peyton Wilson also won twice, capturing the 50 free (23.76) along with the 100 free (51.94).
San Diego State's other individual race winners included McKennan in the 100 breast (1:04.58), Courtney Vincent in the 100 fly (57.01), Thormalm in the 50 breast (30.93) and Santilena in the 50 fly (26.52).
The Aztecs also won the lone diving event of the meet, the 1-meter springboard. Junior Alexandra Caplan took up where she left off last season, winning with a score of 302.65. Fellow junior Nicole Dutton placed second as she recorded a career-best score of 279.95. Freshman Marie Yacopino finished third in her collegiate debut with a mark of 268.30.
San Diego will now move north to participate in the Chick-fil-A Invitational hosted by Fresno State. The meet will be an early-season test for the Aztecs with the top two finishers at the 2016 Mountain West championships, Nevada and Boise State, competing along with MW member San Jose State.
The opening event at the Invitational is slated to get underway on Friday, Oct. 7, at 11:00 a.m. and action continues on Saturday (Oct. 8) at 10:00 a.m.