Swim and Dive enters SCIAC Championships looking to make noise

Photos Courtesy of Chapman Athletics

Swim and Dive is gearing up for the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (SCIAC) Championships this week, which will take place from Feb. 18 to 21 at the East Los Angeles College Swim Stadium in Monterey Park, CA. 

At last year’s SCIAC Championship, the women’s and men’s teams each placed third overall, with Claremont-Mudd-Scripps and Pomona Pitzer taking up the first two spots in both rankings. 

This year, the Panthers weren’t able to get past Claremont or Pomona in the regular season, but they comfortably beat every other opponent in SCIAC. 

In SCIAC’s top times from this season, Chapman has a top 10 placement in most individual events and a top three placement in most relays. 

While Chapman does not currently have an automatic NCAA Division III qualifying time, several swimmers are within striking distance. 

For the women, Alyssa Kooy sits roughly half a second outside the NCAA mark in the 50 free and about a second off in the 100 free. Alex Marumoto is within about three seconds in the 100 breast, while Cora Buelow trails the qualifying standard by less than two seconds in the 100 back. Chapman’s top 400 free relay and 200 medley times from the women this season are each approximately three seconds shy of the national standard.

The men have also seen impressive times this season. Five Panthers — junior accounting major Maxim Polovinkin, freshman health sciences major Cooper Na, junior business administration and accounting double major Riley Coleman, junior computer science major Trent Callowaych and junior strategic and corporate communications major James Galligan  — are within roughly a second of the qualifying time in the 50 free. 

Galligan, Polovinkin, and freshman political science major Jack Krikorian are all about two seconds away from a qualifying time in the 100 breast. Calloway and sophomore undeclared major Alex Landmark are less than two seconds off from a qualifying time in 100 fly. The men are about half a second away from qualifying for the 200 free relay and two seconds off in the 200 medley. 

Senior communications major Reid Omilian, senior communication studies major Jake Randazzo and freshman undeclared major Aidan Trautwein have anchored Chapman’s diving efforts this season, and each rank top 10 in SCIAC in both 1-meter and 3-meter dives.

Beating Claremont and Pomona will be difficult, and qualifying for the NCAA DIII Championship will be even tougher. But after a full season of preparation, the Panthers will look to leave everything in the pool.