Since you last indulged in the sweet, sweet pages of TSL, the Pomona-Pitzer swimmers and divers have not only managed to become tanner and tone their bodacious bods even more (if that is humanly possible), but they have also managed to win four out of their last six meets. We know you all have been keenly following the team’s trials and tribulations, what with multiple YouTube channels, Facebook groups and Twitter accounts all dedicated to the flight of the Sagehens and Sagecocks, but for those of you who took your winter vacations at Hogwarts and foolishly forgot that such Muggle devices would go haywire there, and that the Daily Prophet neglects to cover swimming (Rita Skeeter…), here is a quick update on PPSD’s recent struggles and successes:

December 4 vs. CMS: Women loss, Men loss

Scores: Women 179-58, Men 176-66

Swim of the Meet: Alex Lincoln PO ’14 dropped a sweet 54.57 in the 100 freestyle, beating one of CMS’ top sprinters head-to-head.

Proved: We still are the best looking schools of the 5Cs.

Words from Coach Michael Wong, hereafter referred to as the Iron Fist: “It was solid. We had some OK swims, not as sharp as we wanted to be. We made progress, closed the gap from last year by a point or two.”

January 8 vs. Oxy: You Just Got Oxidized! Women win, Men win.

Scores: Women 120-117, Men 140-79

Swim of the Meet: The women’s 200 free relay (Morgan Ingemanson PO ’13, Maddy DeMeules PO ’14, Kristen Lindbergh PO ’12, Charlotte ‘Charmeleon’ Dohrn PO ’13) finished the meet with a strong victory, earning enough points to clinch an overall win for the women’s team.

Words from the Iron Fist: “Coming off a tough week of training, we still swam well and beat Oxy, although it was a lot closer than we wanted it to be. The Oxy women also had a 32-point advantage from diving.”

January 15 vs. Redlands: Women loss, Men loss

Scores: Women 139-95, Men 157-83

Swim of the Meet: In the grueling 400 IM, Dana Kingman PZ ’11 was neck-and-neck with a Redlands swimmer throughout the race. They battled it out on the last hundred, and Kingman came out victorious, swimming a 4:48.86.

Words from the Iron Fist: “It was a good meet. We rested a little for it, a lot of people swam a lot better than the week before. It was exciting. We started building some racing confidence.”

January 22 vs. Caltech: Saghens Befuddle Beavers, Women win, Men win.

Scores: Women 171-64, Men 178-61

Swim of the Meet: Ryan Higgins PO ’14 swam an impressive 5:05 in the 500 free, taking off like a madman on the last hundred.

Words from the Iron Fist: “It was another good meet. We built on what we did the week before against Redlands, a lot of good swims all around even though it was Caltech and there wasn’t much racing.”

January 29 vs. Whittier: Sagehens Punctuate the Perpetrating Poets by Holding off their Persistent Pressure, Women win, Men win.

Scores: Women 147.5-114.5, Men 174-83

Swims of the Meet: Both the men’s (Max Scholten PO ’12, Andrew Kinimaka PO ’11, Tommy DePaoli PO ’13, Joe LaBriola PO ’12) and women’s (Danielle Shiomoto PZ ’11, Brenda Iglesias PO ’14, DeMeules, Alex Lincoln PO ’14) medley relays led off the meet with assertive wins.

Words from the Iron Fist: “We just kept doing what we’ve been doing for the past few weeks. We swam fast [and] had a lot of really good swims.”

February 5 vs. Cal Lu:

Women’s Team Recap

Saturday, Haldeman Pool… revenge. The Lady Sagehens soundly defeated the Cal Lutheran Regals, proving that whatever a Regal is, the Sagehen is mightier. After suffering a bitter, sneak-attack loss in the dual meet last season, the women’s team had a score to settle this year. Posting a final tally of 136 to 85, the P-P women recovered from last year with a vengeance.

The Iron Fist commented, “We looked a little stiff, but still swam well.” Standout swims included Ingemanson’s season-best victory in the 200 IM, posting a quick 2:17.63. Danielle Holstein PO ’14 stayed strong on the mile, cruising to a seemingly effortless win. Holstein restated her distance-race dominance later, winning the 500-yard freestyle as well. Lincoln delivered on the sprint events, winning both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles. Lindbergh, Dohrn and Kingman each contributed a victory as well.

On a more sentimental note, the meet marked the last dual meet for P-P seniors Lizzie Aby, Dana Kingman, Sarah Lee, Danielle Shiomoto and Isso Shimamoto. The team honored their leadership and general awesome-ness with flowers, t-shirts and a spirited reading of interesting facts about each athlete. Aside from swimming, the senior class appears to share a love for “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” Cheers, seniors, we are starting a team fund to get your names tattooed somewhere on our bodies after SCIAC’s.

P-P women’s swimming heads into the last two weeks of the season excited for the joys of “taper” (including growing out leg hair as flowing as Dumbledore’s beard), SCIAC’s, and of course, the infamous SCIAC party. The women’s team finished the dual meet season with a 5 win, 2 loss record. After taking sweet revenge on Cal Lu, the team is focused on building momentum for an impressive performance at Conference.

Men’s Recap: Cal-Who?

Using the strength and the rage of a Hungarian Horntail, the Sagecocks took to the pool with victory in mind. After winning the first two events of the meet, the Sagecocks never looked back, winning the meet by a score of 133 to 108.

The meet started out with one the best looking and fastest medley relay teams in the history of the school (comprised of Max ‘The Muffin’ Scholten PO ’12, Andrew ‘Mandrew’ Kinimaka PO ’11, Tommy ‘Guns’ Depaoli PO ’13, Joe ‘The Jester’ LaBriola PO ’12), beating out Cal-Lu’s relay by a towering four seconds. J.P. Cumming PO ’13 followed them, winning the 1650 with more time to spare than a time turner. The next victory for the Sagecocks came from The Muffin in the 50-yard freestyle. He also won the 200-yard backstroke with The Jester coming in second.

This meet marked the end of an era, as it was the last home meet for all senior Sagecocks, who were adorned with flowers, praise, and cookies as a tribute to their glory and excellence. Senior Eric—or should I say Epic—Peterson from Pitzer College won the 200-yard butterfly beating off a fellow Sagecock Chris ‘Cookie’ Wright PO ’12 at the finish, with Tommy Guns getting a narrow fourth. Following the race, Peterson was quoted as saying “BEST SHAPE OF MY LIFE!” as he mimicked wearing his WWE championship belt. Senior Andrew Kinimaka of Pomona busted out a 49.09 time with Firebolt-like speed in his 100-yard freestyle to get him a second place. The last senior Sagecock, Matt Ward from Pitzer, also had a solid meet, getting close to a season best in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyles and helping the P-P 400-yard freestyle relay take second to clinch the victory for the Sagecocks. The seniors shall be greatly missed. They have provided much of the traditions, nurturing, and love over the years, and there will be a major void upon their departure. But never fear, even after graduation they will be easily found—in the unemployment line.

This victory could not have been achieved, however, without the help of the three Sagecock divers who all scored and helped beat these so called Kingsmen: Tyler Oe PO ’14 won both the 1 meter and the 3 meter events, Jake Weber PO’14 took a commanding third in both events, and Taylor Beckwith-Ferguson PO ‘14 took fourth in both events.

The Sagecocks shall spend the next two weeks training for the SCIAC Championships, which will take place Feb. 20 to 22 at the Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.