LOS ANGELES – Two relay events, the 200-yard medley relay and the 800-yard freestyle relay, opened the four-day 2022 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Swimming and Diving Championships at East Los Angeles Community College.

The women's 200-yard medley relay got the Tigers off to a quality start with a sixth-place finish, one spot better the seed in a time of 1:43.33. Freshman Noemi Melendez, senior Kelsey Lloyd, sophomore Caitlin Tan and freshman Ashtyne Topie swam in the opening event. In the second women's event, the Pacific 800-yard free relay of freshman Jadyn Phillips, freshman Ellie Macphail, freshman Jordyn Gonzales and senior Allie Emery finished seventh with a time of 7:36.36.

The Hawaii women jumped out to an early lead in the team standings with 74 points, followed by UCSB. Pacific stands in sixth place of the nine teams after the abbreviated day with 50 points, ahead of CSU Bakersfield, San Diego and Cal Poly.

In the men's competition, both Pacific relays placed sixth. The 200-yard medley relay of freshman Baltazar Leland, sophomore Aidan Vollmar, freshman Mitchell Hopper and junior Dylan Parente placed sixth with a time of 1:30.53. The 800 free relay of sophomore Alex Kurotori, Parente, sophomore Aidan Scott and senior David Noyes finished sixth with a time of 6:38.72.

Hawaii leads the men's standings after the first day with 74 points. Pacific is sixth of the seven teams with 52 points, ahead of CSU Bakersfield, 48.

"We created good momentum as we started the weekend with our 200 medley relays, out swimming Bakersfield for both the men and women," said third-year Head Coach Katelyne Herrington. "We need to clean up our relay exchanges; we had some day-one nerves and should be better tomorrow."

Thursday will be the first day for individual events, with preliminary heats beginning at 10 a.m. for the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard individual medley, 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard freestyle relay. The championship finals will begin at 6 p.m. The championships will continue Friday and Saturday.