Dixie State’s women’s swimming team enjoyed a record-setting week as the Trailblazers wrapped up its 2016-17 inaugural season with an eighth-place team finish at the 2017 Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships held this past Wednesday through Saturday in Monterey Park, California.
The Trailblazers tallied 394 total points to slip past Biola Univeristy (ninthth, 390 pts) and UC Santa Cruz (10th, 370 pts) to finish in the top eight, while UC San Diego swam away with the conference crown with 1,601 total points, well ahead of league runner-up Fresno Pacific (1220.5 pts).
Dixie State combined to break 12 school records and came away from the final meet of the season with 41 personal-best performances. Freshman Grace Kroll had her hand in six of DSU’s new school standards, including three individual school records. Kroll shattered her own 200-yard backstroke record by three seconds with a 2:06.53 to finish in ninth place overall, while she also broke the school’s 100 back record with a 58.50 to finish 12th in that event and a posted a 100 butterfly preliminary time of 59.64 en route to her third individual record.
Kroll was also part of three school-record relay performances, teaming up with freshman Millie Snelders, freshman Audrey Parrish and sophomore Phebe James to break the 200 medley relay record with a seventh-place 1:47.25, while Kroll, James, freshman Megan Draney and Parrish combined to set a new 200 medley relay mark with a sixth-place time of 1:37.34. In addition, the foursome of freshman Kayla Greer, Snelders, Kroll and James teamed up to break the 400 medley relay record with a sixth-place time of 3:59.16.
In all, five team relay records were broken during the meet as Draney, Parrish, freshman Christina Johnsen and freshman Saydria Russell finished eighth in the 800 freestyle relay with a school-record time of 7:52.94, while the tandem of Draney, James, Snelders and Parrish placed eighth in the 400 free relay with a school-record time of 3:35.06.
Four other individual event school records fell at the PCSC meet as Draney broke the DSU record in the 500 free with a preliminary time of 5:18.82, Parrish set a new mark in the 100 free at 53.38 to finish ninth in that event and Snelders placed 17th overall in the 100 individual medley with a school-record time of 1:03.00. In addition, freshman Katrina Price set a 50 yard back record with a 27.18 in her opening leg of 200 medley relay.
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.