Arena Invitational: Day One

LONG BEACH, California, November 18. ALEX Coville was a part of two record setting sprints as the Stanford men won five of six events on the first of three days at the Arena Invitational at Belmont Plaza Pool.

Coville led off the 200 free relay and then watched as Jake Allen touched the wall first with a meet record 1:18.80, breaking Stanford's previous best set in 2007 (1:19.71).

Coville continued his night by breaking an 18 year old meet record of 19.60, beating UCLA's Brian Kurza and his 1992 record of 19.71. Coville also beat teammate Aaron Wayne (19.90) as Stanford finished 1-2.

Stanford also set the meet record in the 400 medley relay, with Matt Thompson leading off in the backstroke, followed by John Criste (breast), Bobby Bollier (fly) and Aaron Wayne (free) firing off a time of 3:12.57, bettering last year's mark of 3:12.69, which included previous Pac-10 champions Eugene Godsoe and Austin Staab, along with Criste and Coville.

The Cardinal had the first five 500 freestylers in the A Final on Thursday with Bollier leading the way over teammate David Mosko with a time of 4:19.42, four-hundreths in front of his fellow Cardinal.

Thompson was the first of three Cardinal in the finals of the 200 IM, finishing fourth with a time of 1:47.74, in a race separate by five tenths of a second between the top four.

Betsy Webb set meet records in the 50 free, the 200 free and 400 medley relays and freshman Andie Taylor broke the meet record in the 500 free, as the Stanford women swept the first six events of the Arena Invitational on Thursday.

Webb time of 22.26 in the 50 free, beat three teammates in the finals and bettered her record mark of 22.34 last year. Webb finished ahead of Sam Woodward (22.44) and Kate Dwelley (22.54) in a 1-2-3 sweep for Stanford.

The Stanford 200 free relay team opened up the night session with a meet record 1:29.07 with Webb, Woodward, Andi Murez and Dwelley beginning a fast night for the Cardinal. The time beat last year's Stanford trio of Webb, Woodward and Dwelley with the addition of NCAA Swimmer of the Year Julia Smit of 1:29.22.

Webb, in the backstroke, then led off the final event of the night as the Cardinal foursome of Webb, Liz Smith, Felicia Lee and Kate Dwelley beat the Cardinal 2009 meet record by four seconds (3:38.09). The only change, the freshman Lee for the nation's top butterflyer last year, Elaine Breeden.

Webb, a junior, had competition from the Cardinal freshmen on the top of the podium, with Taylor (500 free) and Maya DiRado (200 IM) also winning.

Freshman Andie Taylor swam a meet record in the 500 free style as one of three Cardinal in the A Final. Taylor swam 4:40.91, nearly a second ahead of Kelsey Ditto's 2009 record of 4:41.30. Ditto was third this year (4:47.99).

Fellow freshman Maya DiRado led five Cardinal in the finals of the 200 individual medley with a leading time of 1:56.28, ahead of Smith (1:57.90).

The Arena Invite runs through Saturday and the Stanford divers begin competition at the Wildcat Invite in Tucson on Saturday and Sunday.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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