Junior Chris Peterson broke Jason Lezak’s school record in the 50 freestyle to highlight action on day two of the Pac-10 Swimming Championships, which are being held through Saturday at Long Beach’s Belmont Plaza. Peterson posted a time of 19.49 seconds in the event’s prelims, snapping Lezak’s record by .18 seconds.
Peterson was the Gauchos’ top finisher in the event; taking fourth in the finals with a time of 19.62 seconds. Both of his times were NCAA `B’ cuts. Three other Gauchos competed in Thursday’s 50 free finals and all posted NCAA `B’ cuts. All three also swam their fastest times in the morning’s prelims.
Kevin Ferguson placed 15th in 20.15 seconds after touching in 19.86 earlier in the day. Ryan Hanni was 18th in 20.28; his prelims time was 20.17. Garrett Thompsontook 21st in 20.41 seconds after touching in 20.16 seconds in the prelims.
Lucas Norman was the Gauchos’ lone qualifier in the 500 free finals. He took 21st with a season-best time of 4:28.78.
In the 200 individual medley, Tim Freeman placed 20th with a time of 1:49.30. He posted a mark of 1:48.74 in the prelims. Evan Simoni took 22nd in 1:50.22 andRandy Aakhus took 24th in 1:5.96.
The Gauchos faced a set back in the 200 free relay when the UCSB `A’ team got disqualified. The `B’ team made up of Alexander Campbell, Andrew Latimer, Dylan Templeton and Max Horrell, which swam exhibition and could not score, finished in 1:22.16.
After today’s two events, UCSB is in sixth place with 75 points. Stanford has continued to dominate the meet and is in first-place with 323 points.
