Texas Invitational Kicks Off Day One; Arizona Leads Women, Longhorns Lead Men

AUSTIN, TX, December 3. SOME of the top programs in college swimming are meeting here December 2-4, several rested and/or shaved, and have already begun spitting out one NCAA qualifying time after another.

Participating schools include women from the host Longhorns, Arizona, Wisconsin, Arizona State, Southern California, Hawaii, Nebraska, TCU, UCLA, New Mexico, SMU, Wyoming and UC-Santa Barbara. Participating men’s teams include: Texas, Arizona, Southern California, Michigan, Cal-Berkeley, Wisconsin, Arizona State, TCU, Wyoming, Hawaii, Southern Methodist and UC-Santa Barbara. These listings match their scoring order after day one.

One of the highlights of day one had to be the men’s 500, where Arizona’s Tyler DeBerry led qualifiers at 4:18.07 but was only able to pull fourth in the final as Michigan’s Peter Vanderkaay won at 4:15.32. Vanderkaay passed two USC Trojans on the last 50, with Larsen Jensen and Ous Mellouli touching in a dead heat at 4:15.43. Some race! Quality tells, as only Olympic medalists or FINA world champions were admitted to the awards stand in this one.

One of the most impressive swims of the night came from a men’s “B” relay from Arizona. In a meet with such a sterling cast of competitors, most swimming very well, the real “B” teams – not just those titled as such by coaches for strategy reasons but actually having the best swimmers – usually are simply not factors.

Here UofA clearly put their best squad up as their 400 yard medley “A” team (Thoman [47.91 backstroke], Stevens, Ferns, Burnett) was first at 3:10.84. Their “B” team of Dave Rollins, Ivan Barnes, Albert Subirats and Jonas Persson – each properly on the “B” with splits slower that their “A” team counterparts – placed second at 3:14.50. They beat the best offerings from Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, USC, Cal and others, none of whom put up chopped liver for the race as there were seven relays under the NCAA consideration standard of 3:18.13.

Some other leading swims were:

Jenna Gresdal, Arizona 50 free 0:22.52
Emily Mason, Arizona 500 free 4:40.51
Carly Piper, Wisconsin 500 free 4:42.25
Whitney Myers Arizona 100 fly 0:52.89
200 IM 1:58.38
Sarah Wanezek Texas 100 fly 0:53.48
Lyndon Ferns, Arizona 100 fly 0:46.04
50 free 0:19.45p
Daniel DiToro, Texas 100 fly 0:46.74p
Adam Mania, Wisconsin 200 IM 1:45.74 (1st)
Dave Rollins, Arizona 200 IM 1:45.52p
Simon Burnett, Arizona 50 free 0:19.28
Hayley McGregory, Texas 100 back (relay L.O.) 0:54.07

This is NOT a complete listing of all AUTO NCAA standards on the night. Check out the full results in the attached listing on SwimInfo.com., which also includes diving and team scores.

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