LONG BEACH, Calif. - The UC San Diego swimming teams completed their three-day stay in Long Beach, finishing up with another strong showing against top Division I and II squads at the Arena Invitational. Following the final day of competition, the Tritons men finished fifth, while the women placed just outside the top ten. UCSD also put up five NCAA A cut times on the third day, with the women now having nine automatic NCAA qualifiers and the men having three athletes with automatic marks.
"It was great to see that we were able to finish the meet even better than we started, particularly since we had such a fantastic start," said head coach Scott McGihon. "We're further along than we've ever been at this point of the year--it was a very successful three days."
Nick Korth continued his strong showing in Long Beach with UCSD's highest individual finish in any event, placing third during the 200 breast with a time of 1:59.32 to record a new school record and another NCAA qualifying mark, besting the UCSD mark from 2000 by nearly three seconds. Griffin Bracke also made the 200 breast final, finishing sixth in 2:03.70. Shaun Stringer and Adam Rice also made the finals with both finishing in the top eight of the 200 fly. Stringer came in sixth in 1:50.23, while Rice was eighth in a final of 1:52.50.
Matt Herman broke UCSD's longest standing record, finishing with a time of 15:29.04 in the 1650 free, to top Dave Sacco's 1988 time of 15:38.24 and qualify for the NCAA National Championships. Kyle Begovich placed 15th in the 1650 free with a time of 16:02.65, while Chris Baier finished 19th in 16:06.94. Martin Vanek's time of 1:49.48 was good for 10th in the 200 back. Blake Langland made the 100 free final on the third day of action, placing eighth in 45.29.
Alex Henley came in 13th during the 200 back in a time of 2:00.32, a time that represented a two second improvement on her preliminary swim and another NCAA qualifying mark. Neda Nguyen scored seven points for UCSD with a time of 2:19.13 in the 200 breast, while Gabby Rossbach was 15th in the 200 fly after posting an NCAA A cut time of 2:03.07.
Henley, Amber Tan, Katherine Tse, and Anji Shakya joined together in the women's final race of the day, completing the 400 free relay in a time of 3:27.97. The time was good for 26 points, 14th place and an NCAA qualifying mark for the team as UCSD ended the meet in 11th overall with 241 total points.
The UCSD diving team will complete competition at the Wildcat Diving Invitational in Tucson, Arizona tomorrow. The entire Triton swimming and diving team will then return to competition in 2011, hosting Loyola Marymount at Canyonview Pool on January 8.
