Sanchez '08 Three-Time Champion at SCIAC Swim Meet, Men's and Women's Teams Each Finish Seventh

Manny Sanchez '08 won the 200-yard individual medley and the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke events at the 2007 Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships at the Cerritos Aquatics Center on February 15-17.  Both the Whittier College men's and women's teams finished seventh at the Championships.

Sanchez is no stranger to success at the SCIAC Championships.  In 2005, he won the 100-yard breaststroke and was the runner-up in the event in 2006.  Also in 2006, he won the 200-yard individual medley. 

Sanchez began the championships with a time of 1:57.16 in the prelims of the 200 individual medley, good for a #2 seed in the finals.  He improved his time to 1:55.06 in the finals, good for his second consecutive Championship in the event and an NCAA 'B' Cut for the upcoming NCAA Championships.

On the second day of the Championships, Sanchez earned the #1 seed in the finals of the 100 breaststroke with a time of 58.12 seconds.  His Championship time of 57.39 seconds in the final also earned him another NCAA 'B' Cut.  In the final day of competition, Sanchez swam a 2:11.86 in the prelims of the 200-yard breaststroke, earning a #3 seed for the finals.  In the final, he set a new SCIAC Championships record with his first-place time on 2:05.21.  The time also qualified him for his third NCAA "B' Cut.  He now holds two SCIAC meet records (he set the record in the 100 breaststroke in 2005) and also holds nine of the fourteen individual swimming school records.

Other top finishers for the men include Sam Benedum '09, who finished in seventh in the 50-yard freestyle with a time of 22.19 in the finals.  He also finished 13th in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 49.09 in the finals.  Two Poets earned top finishes in the 100-yard backstroke.  Matt Rogers '08 finished in tenth place with a time of 58.91 in the final and Matt Brammer '09 finished 16th with a time of 1:02.03 in the final.

On the women's side, Kera Kimura '10 finished in eighth place in the 200-yard breaststroke with a finals time of 2:39.36.  She also finished in 13th in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:13.84.  Catherine Gouge '08 finished in 16th place in the 200-yard individual medley and the 50-yard freestyle events with times of 2:22.61 and 26.30, respectively.  Indre Lauraitis '10 took 14th place in the 200-yard backstroke with a finals time of 2:20.40.

The Poets men's team finished with 212 team points.  The University of Redlands won the event with 946 team points.  The Poets women's team finished with 144 total points; Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges won the women's competition with 994 team points.