All-Stars Leave College Boys Behind SMU Classic

The first night of the meet formerly known as the Dallas Morning Classic is in the books and a couple of pages will need to be re-written courtesy the "Texas All-Stars." The All-Stars, let by a handful of former Texas Longhorns, downed meet records in five of the nine events and are running away from the collegians.  In fact, the only event the all-stars didn't win was the 1-meter board.

Each school is allowed two entries per event, with one diver competing on each board. The two swimmers from each school are split up into an `A' final and a `B' final.

In the 400 Medley Relay the team of Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker, and Garrett Weber-Gale obliterated Northwestern's record by three seconds and outdistanced runner-up SMU by four full seconds.

Eric Shanteau then made a run at, but fell short of Ryan Lochte's 400 IM meet record.  The former Auburn Tiger won in 3:47.55, well ahead of Arizona State's CJ Nuess. David Cromwell followed with a win in the 200 free - two seconds ahead of Northwestern's Eric Nilsson.  Nilsson's swim was a bright spot for defending champion Northwestern.  The Wildcats suffered disqualifications in the first two events.

Ian Crocker kept the TAS win steak alive, posting the first of his two wins in the 50 freestyle.  Crocker fell short of Anthony Ervin's meet record, but did erase Kyle Bubolz's record in the 100 butterfly.  The Northwestern flyer finished second.

Northwestern lost two more meet records when Aaron Peirsol dispatched Matt Grevers' year-old 100 backstroke record and Brendan Hansen erased Mike Alexandrov's name from the board.

The night concluded with the 800 yard freestyle relay.  Peirsol, Cromwell, Dale Rogers and Garrett Weber-Gale posted a 6:23.32 to outdistance the host Mustangs.