The California Baptist Lancers took home men’s and women’s titles at the Cal State East Bay Christmas Invite over the holiday season in mid-December.
On the women’s side, Patricia Hapsari led the way, winning a trio of events. Hapsari took the 50 free (24.36), 200 free (1:52.77) and 100 IM (58.29) to help Cal Baptist land the team trophy.
Second behind Hapsari in the 200 free was teammate Christie Halverson, who won two events of her own. Halverson was 1:54.26 for runner-up honors in the 200, then won the 500 free (5:00.11) and 400 IM (4:31.09). Meanwhile, Alena Rumiantceva also won twice for Cal Baptist while taking second to Hapsari in the 100 IM. Rumiantceva won the 200 IM (2:04.72) and 200 breast (2:15.61).
Fresno Pacific swept the backstrokes, with Olga Melnikova going 57.91 in the 100 and 2:03.25 in the 200.
For the men, Joshua Hanson dominated for Cal Baptist, taking home no less than 5 individual wins. Hanson won the 100 back (50.03) and 200 fly (1:50.49) while also sweeping all three IM races. Hanson was 51.29 in the 100 IM, 1:48.34 in the 200 and 3:54.63 in the 400, blowing out the fields in all three of those events.
The back and fly races were much closer. Hanson barely topped Fresno Pacific 50 free champ Luka Barisic for the backstroke win, 50.03 to 50.04. And in the 200 fly, Hanson eked out a win over another Fresno Pacific swimmer, Wesley Coles, by about four tenths.
Coles won two events individually, taking the 500 free (4:33.30) and 100 fly (49.91).
Two more Fresno Pacific wins came from Maksim Scherbakov, who went 53.94 to win the 100 breast and 1:56.95 to take the 200.
Team Scores
Women:
- Cal Baptist – 1,187
- Cal State East Bay – 1,050
- Fresno Pacific – 681
- UCSC – 363
- UNLV – 20
Men:
- Cal Baptist – 1,306
- UCSC – 830
- Fresno Pacific – 788