RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Roadrunner men's swimming and diving team suffered a dual meet loss on the road at the hands of future Western Athletic Conference member Cal Baptist. CSU Bakersfield's young squad put up a good effort, but fell to the Lancers 169-131.
"This is by far one of my most talented group of men I've coached in a long time," said Chris Hansen, CSUB's Director of Swimming. "However they are not putting it together as of yet. It's frustrating because we are losing to teams we shouldn't be losing too. The coaching staff is going to get together and figure out some changes that need to be made."
Despite his frustration, Hansen mentioned multiple young `Runners who excelled against the Lancers: "Today, the freshmen led the way. Kris Rogic and Loren Gillilan came out on top. Kris won his two individual events and Loren won his three. Other top performers today were Benji Duenas and Justice Kramer. When this team gets it, we could be dangerous. Our upperclassmen need to start leading this team."
Rogic, a native of Zagreb, Croatia, earned victories in both the 100 back (50.77) and 200 back (1:50.93), the latter of which was a season-best by almost a whole second. Gillilan, a fellow freshman, took wins in the 50 free (21.02), 100 free (46.16), and 100 fly (49.07). His time in the 50 free was a tenth faster than his previous best while his 100 fly improved by almost three tenths of a second.
Duenas, a freshman competing in his hometown of Riverside, placed third in the 400 IM with a time of 4:09.13 as well as the 200 fly at 1:54.84. A junior from Federal Way, Wash., Kramer won the 200 fly with a season-best 1:52.99.
Adam Estrella, a freshman diver, improved his PR on the 3-meter board to 255.75 in a third-place finish. He also finished third in 1-meter (241.28).
The `Runners (1-4) have completed the first half of their dual season and will begin to prepare for some tough meets. The CSUB divers will compete at the USC Diving Invitational, Nov. 10-12, while the `Runner swimmers will prepare for the UNLV Invitational, Nov. 16-18.
~GoRunners.com~
