Feb. 21, 2007

Long Beach, Calif. - After day one of the Big West Swimming and Diving Championships in Long Beach, Calif. the Pacific women are currently in first place and the men are currently in third.

In the 200 Medley Relay the women's team made up of Jenny Lewis (Hesperia, Calif.), Ziada Jardine (Cape Town, South Africa), Kristin Okazaki (Auburn, Wash.), and Ja-Neil Bragg (Manteca, Calif.) finished in third place with a time of 1:43.32, while the men's team made up of Wojciech Betlej (Mielec, Poland), David Dunn (Morgan Hill, Calif.), Clint McLaughlin (El Cajon, Calif.), and Thomas Peart (Livermore, Calif.) swam the second fastest time in school history with a time of 1:30.23 to place second.

In the 1000 Free the Tigers took first through third on the women's side and sixth place on the men's. Brooke Cashion (Irvine, Calif.) finished in first with a time of 10:14.28, KC Albiston (Salt Lake, City) finished in second with a time of 10:19.36, and Sarah Gutierrez (San Jose, Calif.) finished in third with a time 10:23.61. Matt Lundy (Lafayette, Colo.) finished in third with a time of 9:26.42.

In the 800 Free Relay the women's team made up of Lewis, Jun Huang (Guangzhou, China), Okazaki, and Bragg finished in second place with a time of 7:25.53, while the men's team made up of Krzysztof Zoldak (Oswiecim, Poland), Peart, Betlej, and Casey Lowdermilk (Parker, Colo.) finished in fourth with a time of 6:45.03.

Head coach Greg Meehan was pleased with the Tigers' performance, but knows there is room for improvement. "Tomorrow will be a big day for us and we are going to have to step up and take care of business. We have to swim fast in our prelims tomorrow morning," said Meehan.

Day two of the four day event will feature the 500 Free, 200 IM, 50 Free, and the 400 Medley Relay.