Nov. 21, 2010

LONG BEACH, Calif. - Rachel Dekar set another LMU record on Saturday, this time breaking the mark in the 200 breaststroke. Dekar's preliminary time of 2:18.06 lowered the LMU program record by over a second and qualified her for the evening's consolation final in which she placed 16th overall.

Freshman Mary Kate Short and Terry Rinder started things off for the Lions with strong performances in the 1,650 freestyle event, with Short achieving a lifetime best time of 17:49.33. That time places her the fifth-fastest Lion in program history. Short's split at the 1,000 mark was also a personal-best and good for seventh place on LMU's all-time. Rinder also had a season-best performance, finishing in 17:54.92 with a season-best 10:49.28 at the 1,000 yard mark.

Outside of Dekar, three other Lions also made the evening finals in their respective events. Junior Tammy Choy recorded her best time as a Lion in the 200 backstroke with a 2:04.11, coming within .3 seconds of Lauren Mathewson's longest-standing program record set in 2007. Choy's time was good for 31st place in the finals.

In the 100 freestyle, LMU's sprinting duo of Isabella Zhang and Carolyn Pasque swam in the bonus consolation, with Zhang winning the heat with a lifetime-best of 50.88, moving up from fourth to second on LMU's all-time list. The swim marked the third personal record set by Zhang over the three-day competition (50/100/200 freestyle), and earned her the number one ranking among MPSF conference swimmers in the 100. Pasque made it back into the evening's finals with a season-best 51.84, finishing in 31st place out of the 140 swimmers in the event.

Although LMU did not qualify swimmers for the finals in the 200 butterfly event, the Lions received season-best performances from all five swimmers in the morning preliminaries. Freshman Angelina Prat posted the second-fastest time in LMU program history at 2:07.33. Prat was followed by Katie Carmody (2:08.48), Yvonne Le (2:09.07), Short (2:11.94) and Christina Cannata (2:15.51).

In the final event of the competition, the 400 freestyle relay, Zhang and Pasque were joined by sophomores Sophie Allen and Camille Hopp, posting a season-best time of 3:28.27 to claim 15th place.

LMU will now take a break from competition, returning to the water on December 18 against Cal Baptist and Cal State Bakersfield.