Dixie State’s women’s swimming team collected seven event wins and broke two school records in its 2017-18 season-opening dual meet against Loyola Marymount on Saturday morning at the Washington City Community Center.
Sophomore Hannah Hansen had herself quite the Trailblazer debut as she broke the DSU 100-yard and 200-yard breaststroke records en route to winning both events. Hansen bested the previous 100 record by nearly a second with an event-winning time of 1:08.25, while she shaved nearly seven seconds off the previous 200 breaststroke mark with a 2:25.50 to win that event.
Freshman Miriam Gonzalez also collected two event wins in the 50 (24.97) and 100-yard freestyle (55.06) in her first collegiate meet, while fellow freshmen Mycah Ellis (2:17.88; No. 4 all-time at DSU) and Anna Ward (2:17.10; No. 5 all-time at DSU) each picked up wins in the 200 butterfly and 200 IM, respectively.
In addition, the 200 medley relay team of Ward, Hansen, sophomore Audrey Parrish and Gonzalez combined to win that event in a time of 1:50.77, the third-fastest mark in program history. In all, 12 top-10 school marks were recorded during the meet.
“As expected, this was quite a competitive meet that came down to the last relay,” said DSU head coach Benjamin Rae. “In the end, we just didn't have enough to win the meet. However, we competed hard and should be encouraged as we move forward. LMU finished sixth in the [PCSC] conference last year and we finished eighth so we have closed the gap significantly particularly considering we were shorthanded. I couldn't be happier with our performance.”
Dixie State heads to Southern California to compete at the PCSC Relay and Pentathlon meets next weekend. Both meets, hosted by Biola University, will take place at the Splash Aquatic Center in La Mirada, California.
Steve Johnson is the Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations and Collegiate Licensing at Dixie State University. For more DSU Athletics news, please visit www.dixieathletics.com and follow Dixie State on Twitter at @DixieAthletics.