UCI men, women capture titles

The UC Irvine men won the UC Irvine/Ayres Hotel & Suites Sprint Invitational and the Anteaters women’s team captured the distance invitational it was the host to on Saturday.

Sophomore Lyndsay DePaul proved to be prolific, winning three sprint events and two distance events, breaking three meet records.

The UCI men defended their title from last season and now have won four of the past five sprint invitationals. UCI won with 578 points and UNLV followed at 419. Cal State Northridge was third with 403 points.

UCI senior Eddie Erazo won the 200-yard butterfly with a meet-record time of 1 minute, 50.14 seconds. Senior Duke Krautim won the 200 individual medley in 2:00 for the Anteaters, while Max Parrague won the 50 freestyle in 21.81 seconds.

The UCI women finished second in the sprint invitational. Senior Chlesea Nagata turned in a great performance, winning the 200 fly in which she broke her own meet record in 55.10. She also won the 50 free (23.98), the 50 fly in a meet-record 24.74 and the 50 backstroke in 26.16, also a meet record. DePaul won the 200 fly with a meet-record time of 2:00.75. She also won the 200 IM in 2:06.75 and the 200 back in 2:02.73. Senior Tanya Nielsen won the 200 free in 1:54.01.

DePaul’s domination also carried over to the distance invitational, as she broke the UCI record in the 1,000 free in 9:55.29. DePaul also won the 500 free with a meet-record time of 4:52.79. Her time in the 1,000 free is the 10th fastest time of the season in the nation.

The UCI women won the distance invitational for the first time since 2005 and have won four of the past six titles. The Anteaters finished with 166 points ahead of second-place Washington State, which had 121 points. UNLV was third with 111 points.

The UNLV men won the distance invitational, ending UCI’s streak of five straight titles. The Runnin’ Rebels scored 218 points, while the Anteaters finished with 201. Cal State Northridge was third with 98 points.

Erazo won the 400 IM in 4:07.82 and the 1,650 free in 16:09.43.

The UCI/Ayres Hotel & Suites Invitational concludes today, starting at 10 a.m. with the relay invitational.

— From staff reports