UCSC Swim Team honors at Conference Championships

Congratulations are in order for the UCSC Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Team, who recently returned from the Pacific Collegiate Swim and Dive Conference (PCSC) Championships at the Splash Regional Aquatics Center in La Mirada, CA on Feb. 13-16. Both the Men's and Women's Teams finished the meet in 5th place overall. Head Coach Kim Musch was honored as Coach of the Year, Senior Daniel Hurst was named Male Swimmer of the Meet for NCAA Div. III and NAIA, and Junior Josanne Van der Wilk was honored as Female Swimmer of the Meet for NCAA Div. III and NAIA.

The team accomplishments are especially noteworthy when considering the competition in the PCSC. UCSC is the only NCAA Div. III school, all other members are NCAA Div. I, II or NAIA programs such as UC San Diego, Azusa Pacific, Pepperdine, and Fresno Pacific.

This is the second time Coach Musch has been named "Coach of the Year"by the PCSC. In his 15th season at UC Santa Cruz, he continues to do what he has done everywhere he has coached, give swimmers the opportunity to get faster. During his first fourteen years the Slug Swim Team has produced over 100 All-American selections, Two National Champions, Olympic Trial Qualifiers, Maccabien Games Gold Medalists, nine PCSC Conference swimmers of the meet,  four UCSC Athletes of the Year, and four NCAA National swimmers of the week. In addition Coach Musch has been honored twice as a UCSC Coach of the Year and a recipient of the American Swim Coaches Association “Certificate of Excellence for Outstanding Coaching” twelve times.

Daniel Hurst, a graduating senior from Redlands, CA, excelled in 6 events in freestyle, backstroke and butterfly at the championships.

50 freestyle, 8th place, 21.32
100 Butterfly, 10th 52.43
100 backstroke, 14th, 55.18
800 Freestyle Relay with Thomas Fisher, Cameron Braun, Austin McNicolas  4th, 6:56.06
200 Freestyle Relay with JJ Amis, Cameron Braun, and Cole Varner, 6th, 1:27.38
400 Medley Relay with Pascal Sodemann, James Lamb and Cameron Braun, 7th, 3:35.62

Josanne Van Der Wilk is a transfer student from Chabot College and attended Hayward High School, both in the East Bay area. She competed in four events at the championships.

800 freestyle relay with Julie Mesavage, Dana Macabales, Leah Smyth, 9th, 7:55.06
500 freestyle, 17th, 5:12.54
400 Individual Medley, 17th, 4:49.01
1650 freestyle, 6th, 17:49.03