BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – The Roadrunner men's swimming and diving team faced a tough battle against Pacific in their home opener on Saturday. CSU Bakersfield managed to edge the Tigers for a 154-134 victory in front of 40+ former `Runners on alumni weekend.
"A lot of seniors from last year and the year before were here," said Chris Hansen, CSUB's Director of swimming, "so, most of our sophomores and up knew a lot of the people who came to watch. I think the alumni really helped provide a great atmosphere for our team."
Hansen highlighted some of his top men's swimmers of the meet: "Kris Rogic's 200 IM and 100 back was big time for us. Lovre Soric always does what he has to do. We're on fire this year. It's going to be interesting to see what happens."
After the CSUB men dropped the opening relay, sophomore Noah Hultner and junior Owen van Krimpen got CSUB back on track with a 1-2 finish in the 1000 free. Hultner ran away for a big win at 9:40.31 while van Krimpen picked up four more vital points with a time of 9:46.30.
Soric, a senior from Croatia, picked up his first win of the day with a time of 1:40.92 in the 200 free. Rogic, a freshman who also hails from Croatia, took a victory in the 100 back (50.25), out touching Pacific's top swimmer by just 0.23 seconds. Soric later won the 200 IM (1:52.12) while Rogic finished third with a strong time of 1:53.84 for the freshman.
Junior Jake Chir earned a victory in the 100 breast (57.08) in another tight race with Pacific. Freshman Loren Gillilan snuck in a win in the 50 free by just five hundredths of a second with a time of 21.25. The native of Fort Collins, Colo. went on to pick up a victory in the 100 fly (49.71) as well.
Soric (1:52.16) and fellow senior Mario Vasquez (1:53.14) finished second and third in the 200 back. With the Tigers nipping at their heels, junior Greg Lee won the 200 breast (2:06.86) with Chir right behind (2:07.04) for a 1-2 finish and some breathing room in the team score.
CSUB's divers competed uncontested as Adam Estrella took wins on both springboards on Saturday with Drew Huerta close behind.
The `Runners will return to action next Saturday in Las Vegas, Nev. CSUB is set to square off against fellow Western Athletic Conference member UNLV on Oct. 21.
~GoRunners.com~
