Cal Leads After Day One of Dallas Morning News College Swim Classic

DALLAS, TX, January 16. CAL leads and the host SMU men's swimming & diving team stands in third place after day one of the 23rd Annual Dallas Morning News College Swim Classic being held on the campus of SMU, according to SMU reports.

The Mustangs were unable to win a heat on the first evening, but did collect five second-place finishes and 145 points.

Standout Camilo Becerra was narrowly defeated in the night's closest finishes during the championship finals of the 50 free and 100 fly. He swam the 50 free in 20.38, just .03 seconds behind Duje Draganja of California (20.33). Minutes later in the 100 fly Becerra was again edged out by Draganja, this time by .01 seconds.

Other notable SMU performances on the evening were sophomore Ian Clark taking second in the 400 IM (3:54.33) and third in the 100 back (50.32). Per Nylin took third in the 100 breast (56.34), while Ferdi Postma finished fourth in the 200 free (1:39.77).

Head coach Eddie Sinnott felt his swimmers made a statement on day one.
"Tonight our guys wanted to make a statement," Sinnott said. "I feel we should be ranked, but we aren't. So we felt like we needed to come out and assert ourselves against some of the best teams in the country."

Ryan Lochte dominated the first night of competition for Florida, winning the 400 IM (3:48.13), the 100 back (47.66) and anchoring the winning 800 free relay team (6:34.14). The Gators' time in the 800 free relay set a new meet and pool record, breaking the old mark set by Florida at last year's meet.

California leads the team standings (182) and won six championship finals overall, highlighted by 6'10" Rolandus Gimbutis' win in the Jerry Heidenreich Memorial 200 freestyle (1:37.48). Florida sits in second place (158), with the Mustangs not far behind in third (145). Arizona St. (126), Florida St. (115) and Texas A&M (111) round out the field.

The final night of swimming was held Saturday.

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