Irvine’s Klatt Wins 50-Yard Freestyle at Big West Meet

UC Irvine junior Dan Klatt swam a personal best in the 50-yard freestyle to win the event in 20.51 seconds Thursday in the first day of the Big West Swimming and Diving Championships at Belmont Plaza.

Klatt, a former Fresno Clovis West High standout, is a water polo All-American for the Anteaters. Klatt’s teammate, Chris Benitez, set a school record in the event during the preliminaries (20.42) earlier in the day.

UC Irvine women’s 400 medley relay team of Nancy Yi, Melody Lomboy, Michelle Dienzo and Stacy Rosenberg set a school record in the event with a time of 3:58.36. The team finished fifth in the finals.

UC Santa Barbara leads the men’s competition with 186.5 points and Nevada leads the women’s events with 231 points. The Anteater men are in fourth and the women are in sixth.

Competition continues today at 10:30 a.m.

In Big West women’s basketball:

UC Santa Barbara 81, UC Irvine 65--Erin Buescher scored 23 points and had 10 rebounds for host UC Santa Barbara, which won its 17th consecutive game.

Santa Barbara (22-3, 14-0) led by 13 with 6:07 left in the first half before Irvine (10-15, 6-8) went on an 11-3 run to close the halftime gap to 38-33.

The Gauchos shot 52% from the field and held Irvine to 33%.

Kristi Rohr and Stacey Cleinsmith each scored 16 points for the Gauchos.

Megan Stafford led UC Irvine with 20 points. Kristin Cappel had 15 points and 12 rebounds in the Anteaters’ loss.

Southern California College 0-1, Cal State Bakersfield 1-0--Catcher Michelle Murrie doubled twice with two RBIs for Southern California College (9-4) in the second game of the doubleheader.

Gina Liebengood gave up three earned runs for the Vanguards. Cal State Bakersfield committed seven errors.

In the first game, Cal State Bakersfield’s Melanie Wood came within one out of her first career no-hitter. She allowed only one hit and struck out three.