LA JOLLA, Calif. -
UC San Diego was defeated by San Jose State, 183-109, in a women's swimming and diving dual meet at Canyonview Pool on Sunday.
UCSD, ranked No. 3 nationally in the NCAA Division II, fell to 3-2. San Jose State improved to 5-1. The Division I Spartans, the defending Western Athletic Conference champions, had their athletes turn in the top marks in 13 of 16 events on the day.
Beth Dong produced the fastest times in a pair of individual events for the second day in a row. The senior went an even 5:03.00 in the 500 free before turning around and swimming 2:07.28 on the other side of a 10-minute break to take the 200 IM in her season debut in the event. She was able to hold off Andrea Chan (2:07.94) of the Spartans in the latter race while achieving another NCAA consideration qualifier.
Dong also was narrowly beaten to the wall earlier in the meet in the 200 fly, racing 2:04.37 behind only San Jose State's Ashlyn Acosta (2:04.25). Chan was third among an extremely tight pack in that one, touching in 2:04.56, with a mere 1.73 seconds separating places one through five.
Junior Anji Shakya, like Dong a co-captain, had the other top time for the Tritons, going 2:05.41 in the 200 back. She too had bested the field in two individual events on Saturday in a double-dual sweep of Division II opponents Grand Canyon and Cal State East Bay. Shakya also placed second in Sunday's 200 free in 1:51.56.
Other individual top-three performances for UCSD were Erika Rodman in the 1650 (3rd, 17:51.16), Sandy Hon in the 100 back (2nd, 58.84), Rosa Bebi in the 100 (3rd, 1:08.10) and 200 breast (2nd, 2:24.18), Amber Tan in the 50 free (3rd, 24.33), Mishka Hulka in one-meter (3rd, 201.75) and three-meter diving (3rd, 228.30), Katherine Tse in the 100 free (3rd, 53.15), Dari Watkins in the 500 free (3rd, 5:11.95) and Naomi Thomas in the 100 fly (3rd, 57.42).
The Triton ‘A' relays had the third- and second-fastest times, in the 200 medley and 200 free, respectively to bookend the meet, behind the Spartan ‘A' foursomes.
For San Jose State, Acosta (200 fly, 100 fly), Darcie Anderson (100 breast, 200 breast), Marisa DeWames (200 free, 100 free) and Amy Kilby (one-meter springboard, three-meter springboard) each won two individual events.
The UCSD men's and women's swimming and diving programs face two more home dates in the week ahead. On Friday, Jan. 11, Incarnate Word and the men of Missouri S&T are in town for a double-dual meet between Division II foes all ranked in the top-eight nationally, beginning at 2 p.m. The Tritons then host Missouri S&T, Cal State Bakersfield and the women of LMU on Saturday, Jan. 12, at 12 p.m. Admission to the Canyonview Aquatic Center is free.
Triton Notes: Sunday marked the first dual meeting between UC San Diego and San Jose State ... The two programs routinely match up at the annual Arena Invitational in Long Beach, with the Tritons finishing ninth behind the fifth-place Spartans in the latest edition of the meet this past November ... San Jose State exhibitioned the final two events of the meet ... For the second straight day, the Tritons were missing the likes of Jaclyn Amog and Olivia Fountain ... Allyson Cohen was also unavailable to compete in Sunday's diving events.
-- UCSDtritons.com --