USC swimming and diving posts strong showing at Pac-10s
The No. 6 USC women’s swimming and diving team took third place overall in the Pac-10 championships, finishing behind Stanford and California.
Strong performance · Over the weekend, junior Katinka Hosszu was named Pac-10 Swimmer of the Meet after posting first-place finishes in the 200 individual medley, 400 individual medley and 200-yard butterfly. - Tim Tran | Daily Trojan
The Trojans took home eight titles from the competition, one off the school record for Pac-10 wins (nine wins in 2003).
“I am proud of the fact that we came away with eight individual championships, by far the most in nearly a decade,” said USC coach Dave Salo. “Those eight wins can turn into eight wins at the NCAA championships which attests to the perennial strength of the Pac-10 conference.”
USC started off on a positive note, ending the first day of the Pac-10s tied for second place with Stanford.
As the meet progressed, No. 4 Cal led the rankings during the opening competition, but by Saturday, No. 1 Stanford had managed to come back and take its second-straight Pac-10 title.
Though USC did not take home the Pac-10 title, it swept the individual titles.
Junior Katinka Hosszu was named Swimmer of the Meet, while junior Victoria Ishimatsu was named Diver of the Meet. Junior Harrison Jones, who participated in the men’s diving Pac-10 championships that also took place last week, was named men’s Diver of the Meet.
“I’m really happy with my times and placements,” Hosszu said. “I hope I can be faster at NCAAs and I’m excited to see how much faster I can go.”
Hosszu won three titles, the 200-meter and 400-meter individual medleys and the 200-yard butterfly, while sophomore Haley Anderson won two in the 500- and 1560-yard free.
Senior Lyndsay DePaul also finished strong for the team on Saturday, taking second place behind Hosszu in the 200-yard butterfly.
Although the Women of Troy stressed that the Pac-10s are not as important to the team as the NCAA competition coming up in two weeks, their third place finish was significant. To some, it is an indicator of what they can do better at NCAAs.
“It’s good we have this meet so we know what we need to improve in two weeks,” Hosszu said. “For example, I know I was slow on a couple of turns, so I can work on that. Hopefully we can improve and do much better at NCAAs.”
The NCAA competition will be March 17-19 in Austin, Texas. The team has high hopes for the last competition of its season.
“We had a strong showing at the Pac-10 conference championships and finished third to two very strong teams,” Salo said. “We are looking to move into the top 5 at NCAAs in a few weeks.”