Bulldogs edged by UC Davis in another close finish

Saturday, January 19

Fresno, CA

1 P.M. PT

Fresno State

142

158

UC Davis

Bulldogs edged by UC Davis in another close finish

1/19/2019 4:27:00 PM | Swimming & Diving

Senior Day Photo Gallery

By: Andrew Tomsky / Assistant Director of Communications

Complete Meet Results (PDF)

FRESNO, Calif. – For the third consecutive season UC Davis and Fresno State had a dual decided in the final race of the day and the Aggies just out-touched the Bulldogs in the 200 Free Relay to earn a 158-142 win on Saturday.

In the meet the Aggies also won two races (200 Medley Relay and 50 Free) by just .01 to narrowly pull out the win. UC Davis led by just a 145-138 margin heading into the 200 Free Relay but the Aggie 'A' team finished first by less than half a second to earn 11 points and the team victory.

Manuela Mendolicchio and Kimberly Harbert each won two races for the 'Dogs, with Mendolicchio breaking her own pool record in the 200 Breast, and Irina Nikolaeva won both diving events to lead Fresno State on Saturday. Bulldog seniors Emily Ayers, Kelli Funk, Samantha Giannetta, Gabbie Libang, Patricia Lucas, Ugne Mazutaityte, Osianna Mcreed, Emma Monnich, and Andrea Tang were honored prior to the meet on Senior Day.

Swimming Highlights

Mazutaityte, Mendolicchio, Harbert, and McReed lost by just 1/100^th of a second in the first event, the 200 Medley Relay, touching at 1:44.74 while UC Davis won in 1:44.73. Emily Cutler, McReed, Tonya Guryeva, and Harbert formed the Bulldog 'A' team that finished second in 1:34.99 in the 200 Free Relay with the Aggie 'A' team winning in 1:34.55.
Mendolicchio won her first individual event, the 100 Breast, in 1:04.31 and won the 200 Breast in 2:15.23, 1/100^th of a second better than her previous Aquatics Center record time of 2:15.24. Lucy Davies placed second in the 200 Breast and Mendolicchio also added a second place finish in the 400 IM with Brenda Diaz Martinez third.
Harbert took both butterfly races for the second consecutive Bulldog meet. She first won the 200 Fly in 2:03.22 and later the 100 Fly in 56.26 while Libang placed third in both races.
McReed took second in the 50 Free in 23.81, losing by 1/100^th of a second as Mia Facey won for the Aggies in 23.80. Cutler was a close third touching in 24.08.
Mazutaityte was the second-place finisher in both the 100 and 200 Back while Cutler placed third in the 100 Back and Stephanie Bartel was third in the 200 Back. Diaz Martinez also had a second-place finish in the 1000 Free and Darina Khisiamova was third.
Zofia Niemczak led the Bulldogs with third place finished in both the 200 Free and 500 Free.

Diving Highlights

The 'Dogs dominated the diving events as Nikolaeva won both boards, Kelli Funk was second on 1-meter and third on 3-meter, and freshman mid-year enrollee Yuliya Tykha made her Bulldog debut and notched a fourth-place finish on 3-meter.
Nikolaeva won on 3-meter by nearly 10 points with a score of 278.03 while Funk totaled 252.98 in third place and Tykha was fourth in the field of 10 scoring 238.65.
On 1-meter, Nikolaeva posted a team season-best and NCAA Zone qualifying total of 277.80. Funk was just behind scoring 245.63 and Tykha finished seventh.

Quotable

Head Coach Jeanne Fleck

"We really thought we had a shot but we just got touched out in two events that cost us the meet. You have to win a relay or you're not going to win a meet. There were a couple close calls but we're getting where we need to go before conference so that's good. The divers were awesome, Manuela and Kim were great, and Zofi and Steph didn't win any races but they were huge today."

What's Next

Fresno State concludes the regular season hosting San Jose State on Feb. 2 at 12 p.m. The meet was scheduled to take place in San Jose but was moved to Fresno as the Spartans' new pool was not completed in time.

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