Big West Conference: Day Two

LONG BEACH, California, February 27. THE Big West Swimming & Diving Championships have reached the halfway point and the UC Santa Barbara men and women sit in the pole position of their respective standings. The Championships are being held at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach, Calif.

Day two saw the UCSB men finish with 301 points, while UC Davis was second with 258 and Pacific rounded out the top three with 210 points. Fourth place belonged to UC Irvine with 171 tallies, while Cal Poly (140) and Cal State Northridge (83) completed the men's standings.

The Gaucho women find themselves atop the leaderboard with 343 points, ahead of UC Davis, who has 296 points, and Pacific, which has collected 225 points thus far. UC Irvine sits in fourth with 206 points, while Cal Poly (159) and Cal State Northridge (95) rounded out the women's scoring

The day began with another record setting performance as Bradley Matsumoto of UC Santa Barbara shattered his own record in the 50 free with a prelim race time of 19.68.

The evening's first scored event of the day was the 500 free, won by Jayme Swalin of Pacific and Alex Arbios of UC Davis. Swalin finished the event in 4:50.95, while Arbios picked up his second individual championship after topping the field in 4:24.50.

Next up was the 200 individual medley and more conference records were set to fall. First on the women's side, UC Davis' Heidi Kucera set a Big West record with a time of 1:58.36, nearly two minutes better than the previous mark. The men's side also had a record-breaking performance as the Aggies' Scott Weltz turned in a time of 1:44.34, topping the previous Big West mark of 1:45.96 that he set earlier this season.

The premier sprint race of the Championships was next as the clubs sent their representatives to the pool for the 50 free. The women's race saw UC Santa Barbara's Anne Marie May claim victory with an NCAA 'B' qualifying time of 22.33, while Matsumoto made it a sweep for the Gauchos with a winning time of 19.73.

The meet focused next on the diving area as the women's 1-meter finals came up on the docket. UC Irvine's Melanie Grosvenor led an Anteater sweep of the event as she was followed by teammates Carissa Lewis and Taylor Arth.

The final event of the night had the most energy as the six conference clubs took part in the 400 medley relay. On the women's side, UC Santa Barbara's foursome of Naomi Javanifard, Katy Freeman, Erin Yamamoto and Anne Marie May set a conference record with a time of 3:37.88. The quartet also set a new Big West record in yesterday's 200 medley relay competition. The men's race saw UC Irvine take first place with a time of 3:12.82, good for an NCAA ‘B' qualifying standard.

Special thanks to the Big West for contributing this report.

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