Men's Swim and Dive 2009-2010 Season Preview

Coming off a successful finish to the 2008-2009 swim season, the Pomona-Pitzer Men's swimming and diving team looks to continue their ascent to the top of the conference standings.  At SCIACs last year, the men finished third overall in the standings.  With nine swimmers returning who scored at the conference meet a season ago, the team looks to be in good shape.  The returners will be joined by several talented freshmen in what will be an exciting season of competition.  The men's team will be led by senior captains Brian Borger, Grant Gucinski, Mike Kim and Minsoo Kim. 

Here's an early in-depth look at the team:

Sprint

The men's team returns everyone in the sprints from last year, including senior captains Grant Gucinski and David Lee, who will also be counted on for their leadership.  Overall, this group looks to be solid and will look to team up to challenge the school records in the 200 and 400 free relays. 

Distance

The loss of David Hendrickson, the school-record holder in both the 500 and the 1000 freestyles, to graduation will be significant. However, two freshmen, J.P. Cumming and Ben Spang, along with Tom Christiansen-Salameh (Jr.), will look to fill the void.

Butterfly

Probably the deepest event for the men's team last year; the flyers will be even stronger this season as All-SCIAC butterflier Erik Peterson (Jr.) leads an extremely talented group into the new season.  With Erik, Chris Wright (So.), and Joe LaBriola (So.) returning, as well as a couple freshmen who are as talented as any of the returners, the team looks to be formidable in this event.

Backstroke

Max Scholten (So.) returns after winning, and setting a new school record in the process, the 100 backstroke at SCIACs and getting NCAA "B" cuts in both distances.  This year, he will look to score some points at NCAAs while also having his sights set on erasing the school record in the 200 backstroke.

Breastroke

Senior captain Brian Borger leads the breastrokers and will be joined by Hawaiians Andrew Kinimaka (Jr.) and Tyson Chihara (So.) as they look to improve upon their performances last year and establish new personal bests.  Although all three were in the top 16 at SCIACs, they have the potential to do even better this year and hope to move up a few spots. 

Individual Medley

Andrew Kinimaka, Brian Borger, and Tyson Chihara, who also double as the team's top breastrokers, make up the IM squad and look to improve on their performances from a year ago.  All three should score plenty of points in the dual-meet season and will look to compete for top finishes at SCIACs.

The team opens their 2009-2010 campaign on Oct. 24th at the Redlands Invitational, hosted by the University of Redlands at the Thompson Aquatic Center.