Swimmers Finish Ninth at Pac-10 Championships
Feb. 27, 2000
LONG BEACH, Calif. - - Freshmen Paula Finlay and Naya Higashijima each set school records Saturday in the Pacific-10 women's swimming championships. Oregon State finished in ninth place overall, just 30.5 points behind eighth-place Washington State.
"It was not as good as we were hoping for," said OSU head coach Mariusz Podkoscielny. "We thought we could beat Washington State, but we missed a couple of events in the morning, and that hurt us," Podkoscielny said, in reference to some preliminary events in which OSU swimmers failed to qualify for the evening's finals.
Higashijima's time of 16:55.87 in the 1650 freestyle was the third school record she set at the championships, marking the 12th OSU record she has set this season.
Finlay swam to two school records on the weekend, her first coming in the 100 breaststroke on Friday with a time of 1:04.39. She got her second record of the weekend when she clocked a time of 2:20.09 in the 200 breaststroke on Saturday. Finlay finished with five school records for the year.
The Beavers also got two more school records at the Pac-10s. OSU's 200 medley relay team of Suzanne Starkey, Finlay, Kristen Martinec, and Arianna Higuera notched a new school best with a time of 1:46.30 on Friday. Magda Modelska, Martinec, Finlay and Higuera finished the 400 medley relay in 3:51.22 to set a new OSU record on Friday as well.
All together, Oregon State set 21 school records this season in nine different events.
"It was a learning experience," said Podkoscielny. "We matured a lot this weekend and gained an understanding of what it takes."
Stanford's team of Gabrielle Rose, Siobhan Cropper, Shelley Ripple, and Catherine Fox set a new NCAA record on Saturday in the 400 freestyle relay with a time of 3:17.78.
Arizona beat out Stanford and California for the championship. The closest battle was for second place, where only 15 points separated second-place Stanford from California.
TEAM RESULTS
1. Arizona, 1325, 2. Stanford, 1197, 3. California, 1182, 4. UCLA, 1043, 5. USC, 975.5, 6. Arizona State, 877, 7. Washington, 460, 8. Washington State, 322, 9. Oregon State, 291.5.
FINAL INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
1650 FREESTYLE - 1. Jessica Foschi, Stanford, 16:12.16, 13. Naya Higashijima, OSU, 16:55.87, 25. Dana Stoddard, OSU, 17:38.79, 26. Amy Imwalle, OSU, 17:47.58, 28. Jill McMinn, OSU, 17:51.30. 200 BACKSTROKE - 1. Beth Botsford, Arizona, 1:54.45, no OSU swimmers. 100 FREESTYLE - 1. Catherine Fox, Stanford, 49:37, 22. Arianna Higuera, OSU, 52.46. 200 BREASTSTROKE - 1. Amanda Beard, Arizona, 2:10.41, 13. Paula Finlay, OSU, 2:20.09, 20. Kristen Severance, OSU, 2:22.78, 23. Sheila Tehranchi, OSU, 2:23.93. 200 BUTTERFLY - 1. Shelly Ripple, Stanford, 1:56.50, 15. Naya Higashijima, OSU, 2:02.47 (2:02.08 exhibition). 400 FREESTYLE RELAY - 1. Stanford (Rose, Cropper, Ripple, Fox), 3:17.78 (NCAA record), 9. Oregon State (Higuera, Renwick, Hedlind, Finlay), 3:32.32, Oregon State (exhibition) (Buckley, Broda, Hsieh, Starkey) 3:36.63.
