THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Cal Lutheran women's swimming and diving (2-1, 1-1 SCIAC) won the Caltech Invite over the weekend, finishing first of four SCIAC teams with 939 points. Three Regals freshmen recorded marks that made the program all-time top-10 list.
Cal Lutheran was joined by host Caltech, Occidental, and Redlands for the weekend invite.
The Regals kicked off the invite with a win in the 400y medley relay, as the group of
Julia Benko,
Katie LaHood,
Madi Bodhidatta, and
Victoria Lawrence posted a time of 3:59.24 to take the event.
Lawrence kept the momentum going a couple events later by recording the 4th-lowest time in program history in the 500y freestyle at 5:06.81 to win the event. Lawrence would set two more top-10 all-time marks later in the meet. Her time of 57.61 in the 100y butterfly trails only Bodhidatta, who won the event this weekend. Lawrence won the 1,650y freestyle with another 2nd-best time in program history at 17:25.34. She now appears on the top-10 list in four different places in just the first semester of her college career.
As mentioned, Bodhidatta won the 100y butterfly with a time of 56.98. She placed first individually in two more events in the invite with times of 24.23 in the 50y freestyle and 52.13 in the 100y freestyle.
Benko added two individual wins in the 100y (1:00.25) and 200y (2:07.06) backstrokes. Freshman
Emily Sellman finished not far behind Benko in the 100y, posting the 10th-lowest time in Cal Lutheran history at 1:00.77.
LaHood, another freshman, set program top-10 marks and placed first in both individual events that she competed in. She recorded times of 1:07.30 in the 100y breaststroke and 2:27.65 in the 200y breaststroke.
The Regals won three more relays to collect enough points for a close victory over Caltech. The quartet of Bodhidatta, Lawrence, Sellman, and
Callahan White placed first in the 200y freestyle relay with a time of 1:38.59. Benko, LaHood, Bodhidatta, and White won the 200y medley relay with a time of 1:47.44. In the final event of the invite, Bodhidatta, Lawrence, White, and
Joli Fong placed first in the 400y freestyle relay with a time of 3:37.26 to beat Caltech narrowly by a score of 939 to 937.5.
After this impressive and clutch showing, Cal Lutheran will take some time off before returning in the new year to host the annual Chris Knorr Invite on January 2.
