Nov. 16, 2012
LONG BEACH, Calif. -
After the second day of competition, San Diego State swimmers held onto second place at the Arena Invitational on Friday and set a pair of school records at the meet being held at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif.
Two-time defending national champion California strengthened its grip on first place in the team standings with a two-day total 831.5 points with the Aztecs behind them with a team score of 634.5. Arizona State closed the gap on SDSU as it sits in third place with 619 points with six events remaining to be contested on Saturday
Seniors Melanie Garibaldi and Gemma Johnson set San Diego State records in the individual medley and butterfly respectively during Friday night's finals.
Garibaldi's second-place finish in the 400 individual medley in 4:15.24 broke the SDSU record she set at the 2012 Mountain West championships. Johnson finished third in the 100 butterfly with a mark of 53.56 to replace the Aztec record she set last season.
Senior Katelyn Weddle registered SDSU's inaugural first-place finish of the meet in the 100 breaststroke with a mark of 1:01.20. Kelsey Jenkinson won the bonus final in 1:04.31 whole Jordan Hanna was sixth in that same race in 1:04.82. Jenkinson's and Hanna's times rank sixth and eighth respectively on the SDSU all-time list.
In the 200 freestyle, another senior, Jessica Crider, captured fourth place in 1:48.02 to record the fourth-best time ever for an Aztec swimmer. Meghan Zimmer took sixth in that same event with a mark of 1:49.06.
Leona Jennings' time of 54.04 in the 100 backstroke enabled her to finish third in that race. Teammate Natalie Ruiz went 55.78 to place seventh in the consolation final and enter the SDSU records list with the seventh-best time in school history.
Other all-time top 10 times turned in by Aztec swimmers on Friday included Loreen Whitfield in the 100 butterfly where her mark of 54.25 ranks second. amanda Barrett's time of 4:27.27 in the 400 IM goes into the number-nine spot in the Aztec record book
In addition, the San Diego State 200 medley relay team of Jennings, Weddle, Loreen Whitfield and Johnson took second in their event in a time in 1:40.00, a mark which enters the Azteca all-time top 10 as the second-fastest in school history.
Action at the Arena Invitational continues on Saturday (Nov. 17) with the women's competition getting underway at 10:30.a. with the 200 backstroke prelims and concludes that evening with the 400 free relay at 7:02 p.m. Live results can be viewed by clicking here.
WOMEN'S TEAM SCORES 1. California................831.5 2. San Diego State...........634.5 3. Arizona State.............619 4. UCLA......................455 5. San Jose State............454.5 6. Hawai'i...................410 7. Brigham Young.............349 8. UC Santa Barbara..........302 9. UC San Diego..............25610. Loyola Marymount..........21411. Cal Poly..................204.512. CSU Bakersfield...........15013. Pepeprdine.................8414. California-PostGrad........6015. Fresno State-PostGrad......5916. CSU Bakersfield-PostGrad...3817. UCLA-PostGrad..............28