LOS ANGELES - The final two days of the PCSC Championships on Friday and Saturday were bittersweet for LMU Swimmers who dove into the water painfully aware, in all likelihood, these were the last races of their athletic careers at LMU. Still feeling the effects of the January announcement that LMU would be discontinuing six of its NCAA athletic programs, including Woman's Swimming, the Lion swimmers put forth their best efforts, resulting in 32 career best-time performances among the 28 women on the team.

At the beginning of the final session on Saturday evening, the seniors from the fourteen teams in the PCSC Conference were honored, including LMU Seniors: Bebe Choroser, Anna Doherty, Maddie Nguyen and Abby Shaw. Towards the end of the final session, in the men's 400 freestyle relay, Concordia University's relay foursome donned LMU swim caps, while the entire community of fourteen schools chanted "LMU" throughout the race. During the awards presentation that followed, the conference honored the entire LMU Women's Swimming team for their contributions, with each swimmer presented with a commemorative 2024 PCSC T-shirt. A bittersweet moment indeed.

RECAP DAY THREE – Friday, February 16

In Friday's contested events, 16 Lions qualified for the evening finals led by Ashley Deabler, Lia Murray and Erin Kau all earned "All-Conference" honors by placing in the Top-8 in their events. Deabler started the day's events, by dropping over two seconds off her best time in the 100 butterfly prelims with a 56.91, qualifying for the evening's Championship final while finishing in fourth place. Other LMU swimmers scoring in the 100 butterfly included Abby Shaw winning the consolation final for 9th place in a career best of 56.63, Adele Kopis in 15th (58.61), Ellie Davis in 18th (58.82), and Hayden Cutler in 22nd (59.42).

Murray earned her "All-Conference" honor by placing third in the 100 backstroke with a season best time of 56.96. Scoring along with Murray in the 100 backstroke were Deabler in 12th (58.42), Maddie Nguyen in 17th (58.85) and Lauren Kim in 24th (1:01.59).

Kau achieved her "All-Conference" honor in the 400 individual medley with a seventh place finish in 4:40.13, followed by fellow freshmen Lydia Hawthorne in ninth (4:37.99), and Mati Dixon in 14th (4:43.98). Bella Flaminio was the sole Lion scoring in the 200 freestyle with a 19th place finish in 1:57.23.

Three Lions scored in the 100 breaststroke, led by Hawthorne in ninth in a 1:08.65, followed closely by Alena Sharp in 10th (1:08.77) and Kopis in 18th (1:10.14).

RECAP DAY FOUR – Saturday, February 17

Saturday saw 13 Lions qualifying for the evening finals, led again by Deabler, Hogenboom and Flaminio who earned "All-Conference" honors placing in the top-eight in their events. Flaminio earned seventh place in the 1650 freestyle with a career best time of 17:52.86, followed by Kau in ninth (18:01.44), Mackenzie Kawashiri in 13th (18:11.98), Grace O'Connell in 14th (18:13.52) and Dixon in 17th (18:20.29).

Deabler earned her second "All-Conference" honor in the 200 backstroke, placing eighth in 2:07:90. Scoring in the next two events were Shaw and Murray in the 100 freestyle final, placing 14th (53.24) and 20th (53.34), while Sharp was the sole Lion in the 200 Breaststroke finals placing 20th (2:31.92).

In the competition's final individual event, Hogenboom raced to her second "All-Conference" honor by placing fifth in the 200 butterfly with another career best of 2:07.47. She was joined in the finals by Hawthorne in 11th (2:10.40), Davis in 14th (2:13.65), and Cutler in 15th (2:14.44).

LMU placed sixth in the team scoring with 762 points, almost doubling their point total from the 2022-23 season, and significantly closing the gap on fourth place UCSC (860) and fifth place Concordia (857).

CAREER-BEST Times
Bebe Choroser
50 Freestyle (25.63)

Kenzi Cook
200 Individual Medley (2:16.60)
100 Butterfly (1:02.33)
200 Backstroke (2:11.86)

Ashley Deabler:
100 Butterfly (56.91) 4th
100 Backstroke (58.04) 12th
200 Backstroke (2:07.19) 8th

Mati Dixon:
1000 Freestyle (10:54.30) 23rd
500 Freestyle (5:17.52)
400 Individual Medley (4:43.98) 14th

Bella Flaminio:
100 Freestyle (54.91)
200 Freestyle (1:57.23) 19th
500 Freestyle (5:14.30)
1650 Freestyle (17:52.86) 7th

Natalie Hogenboom
1000 Freestyle (10:31.25) 7th
500 Freestyle (5:08.13) 12th
200 Butterfly (207.97) 5th

Mackenzie Kawashiri
1000 Freestyle (10:49.62) 17th
1650 Freestyle (18:11.98) 13th

Lauren Kim
50 Freestyle (24.50) 17th
50 Freestyle (24.16* relay)
100 Freestyle (54.64)
100 Backstroke 1:00.54) 24th

Grace O'Connell
500 Freestyle (5:18.03)
1000 Freestyle (10:53.26) 20th
1650 Freestyle (18:13.53) 14th
100 Freestyle (55.2* relay lead-off)

Abby Shaw
50 Breaststroke (30.2* relay split)
50 Freestyle (24.26) 12th
100 Butterfly (56.63) 9th
100 Freestyle (53.24) 14th
100 Freestyle (52.66* relay split)

Saanvi Sood:
200 Backstroke (2:16.11)
200 Freestyle (2:04.10)