BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — The Roadrunner men's swim team placed first in 13-of-14 swimming events on Saturday's slate, and recorded the top time in the 14th, claiming a 169-124 win over visiting UC Santa Cruz at the Hillman Aquatics Center.
Mixing up the lineup and racing in “off” events for the second consecutive meet, CSUB Head Coach Chris Hansen continued to test his swimmers for relay legs and additional depth in certain events, all in preparation for the Conference USA Championships in Houston on Feb. 24-27.
Bakersfield started things off with a sweep of first, second and third in the 400 medley relay. The “A” squad of Luka Leskur, Chad McKenzie, Matt Parsonage and Malcolm Reid won the event in 3:28.99.
Bobby Klagge, Adam Pawlowski and Nick Cavazos followed with a one-two-three finish in the 1,000, including a personal best time of 10:11.71 for the freshman Cavazos. McKenzie claimed the 200 free in 1:44.19 and had the top time in the 200 breast (2:15.15), though he exhibitioned the event. Luka Leskur won both the 100 back (52.98) and the 200 back (1:57.21), while Matt Parsonage took first in the 100 breast in 1:00.65 and the 100 free (47.74)
Freshman Jake Priest had a big day with a personal best, first-place 4:43.15 in the 500 free, a 1:57.90 first-place finish in the 200 fly and a 1:56.17 first-place time in the 200 IM. Senior Malcolm Reid (21.88) led a quartet of Roadrunners filling in the top four places in the 50 free. Reid also took first in the 100 fly in 51.72.
The Roadrunner 200 free relay, consisting of McKenzie, Parsonage, Kevin Miller and Reid, closed things out with a 1:26.41 first-place finish in the day's final event.
Bakersfield closes out the dual meet portion of its schedule next week, hosting a pair of top five programs at the Hillman Aquatics Center. No. 4 ranked Cal comes to town on Feb. 4 and No. 2 Stanford follows on Feb. 5.
“Last year we mixed up our events (against Stanford and Cal), but this year we're going to swim them straight up,” said Hansen. “We are at a level that we can compete and use those swims against strong competition to help move up our seed times for Conference USA's.”
