The Cal Poly Women’s Swimming and Diving team lost its second home meet of the year to Fresno State at a final score of 176-124 on Saturday, Jan. 11. The Mustangs struggled to win outright despite placing high in their races, only finishing first in four of the 16 events.
Senior Stephanie Backlund secured the first win for Cal Poly in the 200-yard freestyle with a time of 1:54.42. Junior Karina Hankee finished in third shortly after with a time of 1:56.25.
Freshman Erin Kim made an impressive showing in sprint races after winning both the 100 butterfly as well as the 100 freestyle outright, marking the first individual event wins of her collegiate career. Kim’s 100 freestyle time of 53:26 topped the Fresno State time by half a second and is the team’s fastest this year so far.
Senior Emily Peters placed first in the 50 freestyle with a time of 24:37 – a third of a second faster than Fresno State’s top time. Freshman Amy Harter and sophomore Maddie Mercer finished third and fourth respectively, in what ended as a vital scoring event for Cal Poly.
One event the team struggled in was the 200-meter backstroke, in which the top three finishers were Bulldogs. The best performance by a Mustang was senior Alison Epple, who placed fourth with a time of 2:09.13.
Cal Poly failed to win a relay after its top teams finished second in both the 200 medley and 400 freestyle relays.
The Cal Poly Dive team returns to action in the UCLA Diving Invitational from Jan. 17 to 19. The Swim team hosts UC Santa Cruz in its last home meet of the season on Jan. 25 at Anderson Aquatics center.