LA JOLLA, Calif. - Paul Li, a junior All-American and team co-captain of the UC San Diego men's swimming and diving program, competed at the South American Championships in Argentina, this past Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 2-5.
Li, a Fullerton product who graduated from Troy High School in 2012, swam for Peru. Both his mother and father were born and raised there, with Li, who turned 20 years old early last month, a dual citizen since 2012.
Li qualified for the South American Championships through his first appearance at the Peruvian national meet in July in the capital city of Lima, achieving first-place finishes in the 100-meter freestyle, 200 freestyle and 400 individual medley, and second-place efforts in the 400 free and 800 free.
Li traveled to Argentina on Monday, Sept. 29. The four-day meet took place in the city of Mar del Plata, located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and about 250 miles south of the capital of Buenos Aires.
The UCSD school record-holder in the 500-yard freestyle, Li was entered in Argentina in four individual events. Combined with relays, he had nine races in all.
On the meet's first day on Thursday, Li swam 1:55.30 in the 200-meter free, 0.69 seconds under his seed time of 1:55.99. It was 11th-best out of 14 competitors in preliminaries, and did not advance him to the evening final. Li then took the leadoff leg of the mixed 400 free relay, his split of 53.87 aiding Peru to a third-place finish in 3:42.39. He rounded out the opening day with a personal record of 8:30.90 in the 800 free, touching seventh while dropping 9.21 seconds off his seed time of 8:40.11.
In the 400 free on Friday, Li was sixth in morning prelims (4:12.87) before improving to fifth in 4:06.53 in the evening final. He also swam the leadoff leg again of the 800 free relay which placed sixth in 8:10.79. His split was 1:56.69.
On Saturday, Li swam the freestyle anchor leg of the 400 medley relay that narrowly broke the Peru national record (3:50.32) in 3:50.31. Peru was fifth when Li touched the wall at the end of his split of 52.76.
Finally on Sunday, Li participated in the 400 IM, the event in which he was seeded highest coming in, at seventh with a time of 4:39.39. In Sunday's final, he went just narrowly off of that in 4:39.53 for ninth place. Li also led off his third relay of the meet, the 400 free relay, turning in a personal-record 100-meter freestyle split of 53.15 as the Peruvian foursome timed 3:32.53 for sixth.
Peru finished fourth in the combined points standings (men's and women's) behind Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
Li is scheduled to return from South America on Thursday, Oct. 9, with the UCSD men's and women's swimming and diving programs preparing for their season opener against Claremont-Mudd-Scripps at Canyonview Aquatic Center on Oct. 25.
The South American Swimming Championships, or Campeonato Sudamericano de Primera, are held every two years. For Peru, Li's focus turns toward qualification for the 2015 Pan Am Games, which take place July 10-26 in Toronto, Canada. His ultimate goal is to make it to Brazil for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio.
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