Nov. 19, 2006
College Station, Texas - The Pacific swim teams completed action at the Texas A&M Invitational on Sunday, November 19. As a team the Pacific men finished in fourth place overall while the Pacific women finished in sixth place.
Individually, the Tigers put up eight top-5 finishes on the men's side led by junior Wojciech Betlej (Mielec, Poland) who took home the individual championship in the 200 Backstroke with a time of 1:45.10. Betlej's time was a new Pacific record. "The highlight of our Sunday̓s performance was Betlej breaking the school record in the 200 backstroke," said head coach Greg Meehan. "His first place finish was in a time right around what it took to qualify for NCAA̓s last year." Right behind Betlej, senior Kenny Yamamoto (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.) finished fourth with a time of 1:48.98.
In the 1650 Free, Pacific finished in third, fourth and fifth place, led by sophomore Justin Canty (El Cajon, Calif.) who came in with a time of 15:44.87. Sophomore Max Maris (Highlands Ranch, Col.) completed the event in a time of 15:57.38 while sophomore Stephen Quinn (Livermore, Calif.) posted a time of 16:03.62.
Junior David Dunn (Morgan Hill, Calif.) finished second in the 200 Breaststroke as he touched with a time of 1:59.34. In the 200 Butterfly, junior Krzysztof Zoldak (Oswiecim, Poland) finished at 1:50.31, good enough for fourth place.
In the relay events, the team of Dunn, Zoldak, Betlej and Canty finished in fourth place in the 400 Freestyle relay with a time of 3:04.80.
"I thought we finished the meet strong, sometimes its easy to have a let down on Sunday morning of a long three day meet, but we were able to step up and perform very well, with faster times in a number of events than we swam at any time last season," said Meehan. "We are very excited about here we are, but certainly not satisfied. The coaching staff and the team know what areas we need to work on over the next two months to get ready for the Big West Conference meets and the NCAA Tournament and we are excited to do that."
