Right on time, UC Irvine junior Randall Tom is recording some of his best swimming performances.

Tom was named the Big West Conference Swimmer of the Year at the conference championships Saturday night.

"Each year he's gotten better, and that's what you expect," said UC Irvine coach Brian Pajer, who said "it usually takes a year or two for male swimmers" to adjust to elite collegiate competition.

Tom, a five-time Big West Conference Swimmer of the Week, "always swam pretty fast times in the season, but he's struggled during the Big West Championship meet," Pajer said.

Pajer attributed the early struggles to Tom's inexperience.

"The last two years, he didn't seem as confident and comfortable as he did this year," Pajer said. "Part of that was being a younger swimmer at that meet. This year he's one of the older swimmers, we changed the training, and we put more focus on some problem areas."

Tom, a 2004 Seabury Hall graduate from Wailuku, qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time.

"The first time you go to NCAAs it's an eye-opening experience," Pajer said. "I don't see any reason he can't take the confidence he had from the Big West Championships into the NCAAs. He's been swimming great and performing when he needs to."

Tom swam an NCAA "A" cut time in the preliminaries of the 100-meter butterfly. His time of 46.47 was the second-fastest in the country this season. He would win in 46.60.

Tom broke his own UCI record in the 200 individual medley with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:47.01 and took third in the 200 butterfly with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:45.77. Because he automatically qualified for the NCAAs in the 100 butterfly, he will swim both the 200 individual medley and 200 butterfly there.

Tom's 400 freestyle relay team broke the meet and UCI record with an NCAA "B" cut time of 2:56.31, which is the seventh fastest time in the country this season.

His 200 freestyle relay team won with an NCAA "B" cut time of 1:19.82, breaking UCI and Big West Championship records.

Tom's 400 medley relay team swam the fourth-fastest time in the country this year with a UCI and meet record time of 3:11.52, which automatically qualified for the NCAAs. The team became the first in UCI history to qualify for the nationals.

Tom's 200 medley relay team won for the third straight year with a UCI and meet record time of 1:26.85, the seventh-fastest in the country this season is just shy of automatic NCAA qualification.

"He's just gotten more confident in swim events he didn't think he could compete in," said Pajer, who said Tom's improvement in the breaststroke also helps his individual medley events.

Also from Maui on the UC Irvine team is junior Chelsea Nagata, who has been to the NCAAs her first two seasons. The 2004 Maui High graduate from Kahului won All-America honors in the 100 butterfly after finishing seventh at the nationals last year.

Nagata won the 100 butterfly at the Big West Championships for the third straight year in 53.35 seconds. She swam a 53.26 in prelims to automatically qualify for the NCAAs.

She also won the 100 backstroke with an NCAA "B" cut time of 54.80.

Her 200 medley relay won for the second consecutive season with a UCI record time of 1:42.35. Her 800 freestyle relay finished third in a school-record 7:30.12.

Unlike Nagata, Tom didn't have a lot of national-level exposure coming out of high school, Pajer said. That meant he had a lot to adjust to when he entered college.

But both are swimming well and are quality contributors to the UC Irvine program, according to their coach.

"It's been great," Pajer said. "They are very good students. They are very good team-oriented people who have made an impact on the program."

Reach Leila Wai at lwai@honoluluadvertiser.com.