Nov. 21, 2010
LONG BEACH, Calif. - San Diego State swimmers set another pair of school records and placed fourth of 19 teams at the Arena Invitational as the meet finished up Saturday evening at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif. During the three-day event, the Aztecs set a total of eight school marks and turned in some 30 times that will enter top 10 in the program's record book.
Saturday's finals began with freshman Kelly Marquenie establishing a new San Diego State record in the 1650 free with a time of 16:25.43. That time bettered the previous best by Petra Radovic during the 2009-10 season by over nine seconds. That mark also earned her a fourth-place finish (of 55 entries) in the race.
Marquenie was followed by Melanie Garibaldi (16:43.95) in seventh place with freshman Lauren Parrett placing 15th with a time of 17:08.46. Parrett enters the SDSU record book as the sixth-best time while Garibaldi already ranks among the top 10 with a time set last season.
The other school record set on Saturday came in the 100 freestyle where Stephanie Koch went 50.07 to improve her own SDSU standard of 50-33 that she turned in as a freshman a year ago. Koch's time was good enough for an eight-place finish out of 120 athletes in the event.
Katelyn Weddle led the Aztecs in the 200 breaststroke, finishing fourth (of 68) with a time of 2:13 .01. A pair of freshmen recorded marks that move into the SDSU top 10 as well. That duo included Mikaela Macklin (2:16.76 - 3rd) along with Parrett (2:20.98 - 8th).
San Diego State's top finishes in the other two individual events went to Leona Jennings in the 200 backstroke (2:00.21) and Brooke Vessey in the 200 butterfly. Jennings placed eighth of 83 swimmers in her event while Vessey was 16th of 88 entrants in her race.
In the final event of the meet, the 400 free relay team of Kim Bierwith, Koch, Jennings and Shaida Solimani went 3:24.19 to capture sixth place (of 33 teams). Their time goes into the SDSU record book as the second-best ever in the event.
Top-ranked Stanford won the team title at the Arena Invitational followed by No. 5 California. Arizona State finished third, just 7.5 points ahead of the Aztecs, who topped 24th-ranked UCLA as well as the four other Mountain West Conference schools that participated in the meet.
The final steam standings are as follows:
1. Stanford.........1706 2. California........825 3. Arizona State...759.5 4. San Diego State...752 5. UCLA..............576 6. UNLV............508.5 7. Oregon State......435 8. San Jose State....416 9. Brigham Young.....33710. UC Santa Barbara..31311. UC San Diego......24112. Hawai'i...........23913. Utah..............23114. Colorado State....17215. Fresno State......15116. San Diego.........14117. Loyola Marymount..13018. CSU Bakersfield....7619. UC Davis...........3320. Unattached.........26
AZTECS DIVERS AT WILDCAT DIVING INVITATIONAL
While the SDSU swimmers are competed at the Arena Invitational, the Aztec divers are in Tucson, Ariz., this weekend where they are participating in the three-day Wildcat Diving Invitational which got underway on Friday at the University of Arizona.
A total of 66 divers competed in today's 1-meter event for the woman which was won by Victoria Ishimatsu of USC with a score of 319.50 points.
San Diego State's top finisher was junior Kristen Meier, who placed 19th with 233.30 points. Other Aztec scores included junior Aina Eill (48th) with 188.50 points and freshman Anna Steiner (54th) with183.25.
The diving invitational continues on Sunday with the women's platform diving set to get underway at 11:30 a.m. at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center on the Arizona campus.