Women's Swimming and Diving

On the final day of the meet Mesa secured a 5th place team finish with more outstanding swims as 3 more school records were set. Murphy Wimer won her third individual state title with a 56.34 in the100 Fly. Only one other swimmer captured 3 individual titles.
Julie Wells and Lauren Braswell scored in the 100 Breast, Wells finishing 4th in a school record 1:06.75, and Braswell 15th in 1:09.94. In the 400 Free Relay, the team of Wimer, Macarthur, Foster and Wells recorded a school record 3:38.22, good for a 6th place finish.
Mesa finished the meet in 5th place with 253 points.

Mesa continued its outstanding performances with another state title and several finalist swims. The 200 Medley Relay team of D’Avila, Braswell, Foster and Macarthur finished in 7th place at 1:52.32, just off the school record set in the morning with Murphy Wimer replacing Foster. Wimer sat out the evening relay to focus on the 200 IM, which paid off as she ran away with the title, winning by over 3 seconds and just off the state mark with a 2:03. 956. Teammate Julie Wells finished in 3rd place with a 2:07.89. Lauren Braswell finished in 16th place in the 50 breast and Megan Looney wrapped up the 3-meter diving with an 7th place finish, with 182.85 points. The 800 Free Relay team of Wimer, Braswell, Macarthur and Wells finished in 5th place in a school record of 8:00.93. Murphy Wimer led off the relay with a blazing 1:53.38, good for another school record and second best 200 time in the entire meet.
Mesa moved up in the team race to 5th place with 190 points.

The California State Swimming and Diving Championships started off in grand fashion for the Mesa College women’s swimming and diving team. In the 200 Free Relay final the team of Talyssa D’Avila, Nicole Macarthur, MaryKate Foster and Julie Wells finished in fifth place in a new school record of 1:40.12
In the second event, the 500 Free, Murphy Wimer led wire to wire to win the first of three state titles in 5:00.92, easily breaking her school record of 5:03.65 set in the morning heats. Next up was Julie Wells in the 100 IM. Wells finished in third place in another school record of 59.27. Her time is the sixth fastest all-time in community college competition.
In the 50 Free Talyssa D’Avila finished in 15th place in 25.26. Her prelim time of 24.81 seeded her 9th and was an improvement from the 25.24 entry time.
In the final event of Day 1, the 400 Medley Relay team of D’Avila, Lauren Braswell, Wimer and Wells finished in 4:07.92, good for 7th place.
In the 1-meter diving event, Megan Looney finished in 12th place, with 153.70 points.
Mesa finished the first day in 6th place in the team race with 89 points.

Nicole Macarthur was named Pacific Coast Conference Athlete of the Week based on her performances at the PCC Swimming and Diving Championships. Macarthur, a freshman from Scripps Ranch High School, won three events to lead the Olympians to the team title. Her gold medals came in the 50-, 100- and 200-freestyle races. She was named Co-Swimmer of the Meet.

The final day of the conference championships provided more great swims for the women of Mesa. In the longest event, 1650 Free, Crystal Patterson and Carrie Christianson finished 2-3. Talyssa D’Avila followed with a second place finish in the 100 Back. Mesa finished 2-3-4-5-6 in the 100 Breast as Julie Wells lead a parade of Mesa swimmers including Lauren Braswell, Whitney Porter, Alisha Ritchie and Catalina Barraza. Murphy Wimer and MaryKate Foster finished 1-2 in the 100 Fly to get Mesa back to the winning side. In the final event of the meet, the 400 Free Relay, Mesa dominated from the start as Julie Wells led off in a 54.32 followed by MaryKate Foster, Nicole Macarthur and Murphy Wimer.
Mesa finished with 948 points to beat runner-up Grossmont by over 250 points.

Mesa opened up the second day of the conference championships with five straight event wins. The first win was in the 200 Medley relay as the team of Talyssa D’Avila, Lauren Braswell, Murphy Wimer and Nicole Macarthur went 1:52.23 for another conference and school record. Wimer and Julie Wells followed that up with a 1-2 finish in the 200 IM, Wimer winning in 2:10.81 followed by Wells in 2:17.18. In the 50 Fly the Olympians went 1-2-3 with MaryKate Foster, Lauren Braswell and Alicia Harding sweeping the top spots. Katie Kelner won the consolation heat as well. Next up was Nicole Macarthur who won her second event of the meet by posting a 2:02.49 for a win in the 200 free. Crystal Patterson finished fifth with Madeline Wolfe next in sixth. Lauren Braswell took the win in the 50 Breast as five of the eight finalists were from Mesa. Braswell’s 31.51 was followed in second by Whitney Porter, fourth and fifth went to Alisha Ritchie and Catalina Barraza with Kristy Cornwell finishing in eighth and Emily Torres winning the consolation final. Talyssa D’Avila finished second in the 50 back with Amanda Staub in eighth and Carrie Christianson winning the consolation final. In the 800 Free Relay, Mesa got a commanding lead from Murphy Wimer, Lauren Braswell and Julie Wells to allow Nicole Macarthur to cruise home for the win in 8:15.31.
In the 3-meter diving event, Mesa finished 2-3 as Megan Looney was followed by Elise Aquilar. Megan qualified for the state meet with a sixth place finish at the SoCal Championships.
At the end of day 2 Mesa held a commanding lead of over 150 points.

Mesa got off to a great start on the first day of the Pacific Coast Conference Swimming and Diving Championships with 2 relay wins and 2 individual event wins. Mesa leads the meet with 307 points to 203 for Grossmont and 197 for Palomar.
The 200 Free Relay team of Nicole Macarthur, Talyssa D’Avila, Marykate Foster and Julie Wells went 1:40.49 to establish new conference and school records.
Murphy Wimer followed that up with a win in the 500 Free (5:08.90) which was also a new conference and school record. All 5 Mesa swimmers in the 500 finished in the top 8.
In the 100 IM, Julie Wells set a new school record with a 1:00.14 while finishing second. Whitney Porter finished 4th and Kristy Cornwell won the consolation finals.
Mesa went 1-2-5-7 in the 50 free final with Nicole Macarthur and Talyssa D’Avila in a close race (25.22-25.24) followed by Marykate Foster 26.11 and Alicia Harding at 26.72.
In the 1-meter diving event, Mesa finished 2-3 with Megan Looney and Elise Aquilar. Looney qualified for the state championship by virtue of her top 6 finish in the SoCal region.
In the final event Mesa ran away on the final leg of the 400 Medley Relay to win in a new conference and school record of 4:03.98. D’Avila, Lauren Braswell, Wimer and Wells comprised the relay.

Talyssa D’Avila was named Pacific Coast Conference Athlete of the week for her performance against Mt. San Antonio College. D’Avila, a freshman from Point Loma High School, helped lead Mesa’s swimmers to a 164-130 win over Mt. SAC as the Olympians completed an undefeated dual meet season.
D’Avila won the 50 and 100 backstroke events vs. the Mounties and was part of Mesa’s winning 200 medley relay team.

Mesa keeps its unbeaten streak alive with a 164-130 non-conference dual meet win over Mt. San Antonio College. In what turned out to be a competitive team and individual races, Mesa was able to pull away late and cruise to the win. Mesa started the meet off with a season best 200 Medley Relay time of 1:55.73 with the team of Talyssa D’Avila, Lauren Braswell, Murphy Wimer and Julie Wells. Wimer led the team with 3 individual wins (200 IM, 200 Free, 100 Fly) to go along with the relay win. Wells would win two (100 IM, 100 Free) and contribute a second in the 100 breast. D’Avila won both the 50 and 100 Backstrokes, Lauren Braswell won the 50 Fly. Megan Looney won both the 1 and 3-meter diving competitions. Mesa will travel to Pasadena for the first day of a two-day invitational before competing at the Pacific Coast Conference Championships.

Mesa clinches Pacific Coast Conference dual meet championship with big win over Grossmont, 192-93. The Olympians won all but 1 event as they recorded their 3rd dual meet win. Individual event winners for Mesa included: Murphy Wimer (200 IM, 100 Back, 100 Fly), Julie Wells (50 Free, 100 Breast, 500 Free), Nicole Macarthur (100 Free, 200 Free), Talyssa D’Avila (50 Fly) Whitney Porter (50 Breast), Lauren Braswell (50 Breast). The winning 200 Medley Relay team was D’Avila, Braswell, Wimer and Macarthur while the winning 200 Free Relay was Braswell, Foster, Wells and Alicia Harding. Melissa Lowe won the 1-meter diving event and Megan Looney won the 3-meter diving event.
Mesa next will host a non-conference dual meet against Mt. San Antonio before competing at the Pasadena Invitational.

Mesa wins second Pacific Coast Conference dual meet easily outdistancing Southwestern College, 221-63. The win improves Mesa’s record to 2-0. The Olympians swept several events while swimming off-events. The Jaguars of Southwestern had several event winners in only their second season of competition. Individual event winners for Mesa included: Julie Wells (200 IM, 50 Fly),Nicole Macarthur (50 Free, 200 Free), Murphy Wimer (100 Free, 100 Breast ), MaryKate Foster (100 Fly), Talyssa D’Avila (50 Back) Whitney Porter (500 Free), Lauren Braswell (50 Breast). The winning 200 Medley Relay team was D’Avila, Braswell, Foster and Madeline Wolfe while the winning 200 Free Relay was Foster, Porter, Wolfe and Catalina Barraza.
Mesa next will face conference rival Grossmont.

Mesa finished in second place at the 3rd annual Chaffey Invitational despite not having half the team due to illness or injury. Mesa finished behind Sierra College but ahead of 9 other schools with 565 points. Mesa had only 12 swimmers at the meet and one less after the first event when a swimmer strained foot ligaments slipping off the blocks. Despite a small storm during the first day’s action good performances were still turned in by most of the Mesa swimmers. Murphy Wimer missed setting 3 different meet records, each by less than a half second. Julie Wells finished second in three events while all 5 of the Mesa relays finished in 2nd place.

Julie Wells becomes the second Mesa swimmer named Pacific Coast Conference swimmer of the week. Wells won 3 individual events (100 Breast, 100 Free, 100 IM ) in the conference dual meet against Palomar and was also on the winning 200 Free Relay.

Mesa swamps Palomar in the first Pacific Coast Conference dual meet of the season, 191-79. Winning all but 3 events the Olympians cruised to an easy conference win over conference rival Palomar. Multi-event winners included Melissa Lowe (diving), Murphy Wimer (200 IM, 100 Fly, 500 Free), and Julie Wells (100 IM, 100 Free, 100 Breast). Both relays were won by Mesa, the 200 Medley Relay team of Talyssa D’Avila, Lauren Braswell, Wimer and Nicole Macarthur and the 200 Free Relay team of Wells, D’Avila, MaryKate Foster, and Macarthur.
Next meet is the Chaffey Invitational followed by a conference dual meet with Southwestern College at the Mesa pool.

Based on her outstanding performance at last weeks Mt. San Antonio Invitational swimming meet, Murphy Wimer was named Pacific Coast Conference Athlete of the week. Wimer won 3 events and finished 2nd in one while recording a meet record in the 200 Butterfly. Wimer's efforts led Mesa to a 3rd place team finish.

Mesa finished in 3rd place out of 18 teams at the prestigious Mt. San Antonio College Invitational swimming and diving meet. The Olympians had a bundle of outstanding swims as they scored 468 points. Murphy Wimer led the way with 3 individual wins (500 Free, 200 Fly, 400 IM) setting a meet record in the 200 Fly and just missing the meet record in the 400 IM. Julie Wells had another strong showing, finishing in 2nd place in the 100 and 200 IM’s as well as top 5 finishes in the 100 Free and 50, 100 Breaststroke. The 200 Medley finished in 4th place while the 400 Medley Relay team finished in 2nd place. Other top 10 performances included Nicole Macarthur (50 Free), Lauren Braswell (50, 100 Breast), MaryKate Foster (50, 100 Fly) and Elise Aquilar in the diving event.
The 3rd place team finish proves Mesa will be in contention for a top 3 finish at the State championships later this season.

It took a total team effort but the Mesa College women’s swimming and diving team finished in first place at the Waterman Festival edging Cerritos by 2 points, 594 to 592.
Individual event winners included Julie Wells in the 200 Individual Medley and Lauren Braswell in the 100 Breaststroke. Murphy Wimer finished 2nd in the 100 Butterfly.
Mesa won three relays including the 350 Butterfly, 350 Breaststroke and 600 Iron women relays while finishing in second in the 200 Medley Relay and 400 Free Relays.
Mesa divers, Elise Aquilar and Melissa Lowe finished 1-2 in the diving event that ultimately helped secure the win.

Mesa finishes with 4 of the top 10 performers at the annual Pacific Coast Pentathlon. The winner was Natalie Peng from Cerritos with a total time of 2:59.42
Mesa’s Julie Wells finished third, just .68 behind at 3:00.10. Murphy Wimer was 4th at 3:04.11 with Lauren Braswell at 9th and Talyssa D’Avila finished in 10th place.

After last years conference dual meet championship, expectations are high for the 2009 swimming and diving season. With over 40 members on the roster the women are expected to win both the Pacific Coast dual meet and championship team titles. With 34 team members part of the incoming freshmen group youth will bring a lot of talent. The diving squad has 4 new members plus the return of 2007 All-American, Megan Looney to secure valuable points during the season. Kristie Bowdler, former All-American diver begins her first year as Head Diving Coach at Mesa and should have an immediate impact.
On the swim side, Pacific Coast Conference Co-Swimmer of the Year, Sasha Beltran returns along with 2-event Conference Champion Whitney Porter. The large freshmen group is led by Julie Wells and Murphy Wimer and will provide depth and talent along with transfer Lauren Braswell, a 2008 State Finalist in both Breaststroke events.
Other freshmen who will make a contribution include Nicole Macarthur, Talyssa D’Avila, MaryKate Foster and Alisha Ritchie.