Las Vegas, Nev. - Swimming the first day of the UNLV Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 13, the Tigers witnessed a school record go down as sophomore Margaux Verger Gourson shattered her own 500 Free record. On the day, Pacific swam 10 finals events during the evening session after preliminaries were held in the morning to begin the meet. The field at the meet features UNLV, Fresno Pacific, Whittier College, Cal State East Bay, New Mexico, New Mexico State and Northern Arizona.
The highlight of the opening day of the invitational was Verger Gourson's performance in the finals of the 500 Free as the sophomore put on a show in the event that has become her signature. Continuing her stellar showing in the 500 Free in the regular season, Verger Gourson took home the title at the invitational to stay perfect in the event during her career. Even more impressively, Verger Gourson came up with the fastest swim in program history as the second-year star touched the wall at 4:43.07 to beat her own school record by over four seconds.
Outside of the win the 500 Free, the Pacific women picked up third place finishes in the 200 Free Relay, 50 Free and 400 Medley Relay. In the relay, tbe team of Kenna Ramey, Haley Preston, Annie Sumioka, and Vaiva Gimbutyte came in at 1:34.59 just off the pace set by UNLV's top relay team. A few events later, Ramey picked up her second third place finish as she went 23.41 in the 50 free, just under one second behind UNLV's Julia Fehervari who paced the field. Ramey, Gimbutyte and Preston would team up once again, this time Cammy King to finish third in the 400 Medley Relay as the team touched at 3:47.85.
For the men, the team came up with three fourth places finishes in the 200 Free Relay, 500 Free, and 400 Medley Relay. Outside of the relays, senior Brandon Chandler posted Pacific's top individual finish as the vet paced the Tigers in the 500 Free with a time of 4:36.50.
On day two, the field will swim 14 more finals events in the evening after prelims in the morning session. The second day will feature the 200 Medley Relay, 400 IM, 100 Fly, 200 Free, 100 Breast, 100 Back, and 800 Free.
