Nov. 21, 2013
MONTEREY PARK, Calif. - The San Diego State swimming team finds itself in second place just 18 points behind leader San Jose State after day one of the three-day Arena Invitational being held at East Los Angeles College in Monterey Park, Calif. The University of Pacific is a distant third with 197 points in the meet featuring 11 teams from the state of California.
The Aztecs began Thursday evening's finals session by winning the 200 free relay as the foursome of Anika Apostalon, Taylor Johnson, Whitney Weisz and Maddy Dalcamo turned in a time of 1:32.17. In the process, Apostalon set an SDSU 50 freestyle record by swimming a 22.62 in the leadoff leg of that relay, a mark she would better later in the evening. The relay team's time, meanwhile, goes into the Aztec record book as the fourth-fastest in school history.
The next event, the 500 freestyle, saw Dana Michaels advance to the final where she finished eighth with a time of 4:58.55. In the prelims, freshman Caroline Mitchell, who did not swim in the finals, turned in a time of 4:55.33, the eighth-fastest time in school history.
The 200 individual medley saw Aztec swimmers capture second and third place in the final. Freshman Frida Berggren's second-place time of 2:03.51 goes into the SDSU record book as the fifth-fastest time. Sophomore Natilee Ruiz took third with a mark of 2:04.72.
It was then Apostalon's turn to shine again as she re-set her school record while finishing second in the 50 freestyle in a time of 22.39, a mark that was also an NCAA B cut. Johnson and Dalcamo tied for third in the consolation final with a mark of 23.62.
Apostalon capped off her day by swimming the leadoff leg of SDSU's winning 400 medley relay team that finished in 3:41.75. Not only was her 100 backstroke leg of 55.33 the fifth-best time by an Aztec, the relay time also went into the school record list as the sixth-fastest.
Action at the Arena Invitational continues on Friday (Nov. 22) with prelims in the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke and 100 backstroke getting underway at 9:00 a.m. Finals in those five events plus the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyler relay are scheduled to start at 5:00 p.m.
TEAM STANDINGS 1. San Jose State.....318 2. San Diego State....300 3. Pacific............197 4. Hawaii.............184 5. Loyola Marymount...182 6. CSU Bakersfield....172 7. UC San Diego.......156 8. U. of San Diego....154 Fresno State.......15410. Cal Poly...........15211. Pepperdine..........66