GLENDORA, Calif – All-American Kaylen Hewko won 2 events and freshman Victoria Gibb continued to shine early in the collegiate career as Azusa Pacific hosted its first meet of the 2009-10 season, a triangular with University of La Verne and Biola University staged at Glendora High School Saturday afternoon.
Azusa Pacific’s do-everything swimmer, Hewko won the 200 butterfly in rather easy fashion with a 2:12.29 and followed by taking the 500 free with a school-record and NAIA-qualifying 5:17.91, besting her former school standard by nearly 4 seconds.
“Kaylen is just a raw talent when it comes to swimming different events,” said Azusa Pacific head coach Robert Fleming. “It’s nice to see her cognitively figure out the 500. It’s a 5-minute race where you have the time to come up with some different strategies during the race.”
Gibb, who was a late-summer add to the Cougar roster, won the 100 free with a 56.79. She has already qualified for the NAIAs in the 100 and 200 free and has played a key role in 3 relays that are NAIA Championship Meet-bound.
Azusa Pacific’s other victor during Saturday’s meet was freshman Simone Garcia, who won the 200 individual medley (2:18.68).
Junior Karla Hill punched her ticket for the NAIAs with a very fine 19:47.57 in the grueling 1650 free. Junior Malia Garcia clocked a 5:06.03 in the 400 individual medley, good enough for a NAIA meet ticket next March.
Given the Halloween date of the meet and its staging early in the season, the general atmosphere of the meet was light-hearted and fun, and the Cougars best exemplified it by wearing jack-o-lantern swim caps. The athletes took a mid-meet break from the competition with a “costume-relay” that created desired laughs from coaches, competitors and spectators.
“We got a bunch of ‘pumpkins’ out there and the girls were happy to have those caps,” said Fleming. “That was just to break up the monotony and have some fun out there. Overall, we performed very well today. The emotion and spirit was there, which is nice since we had a long week of hard workouts. ”
The Cougars return to the pool Saturday (Nov. 7) at the La Verne Invitational which begins at 8 a.m.
