California continued its assault on the 2008 Pac-10 Swimming Championships Thursday night but Stanford, by taking the most qualifiers into the night, took the lead from Arizona which now sits third.  

"It's going to be a great team battle," Stanford coach Skip Kenney said. "Right now, it looks like there are three teams that are pretty equal. In the next two days, I'm sure one of them will start to pull away. "The team that's going to get their depth, to get their third event, is going to be the one that wins the meet."

Wildcat sophomore Jean Basson claimed the first event of the night, winning the 500 freestyle in a NCAA Automatic time of 4:15.29.  In the final heat only three swimmers - Basson and Stanford's Daniel Beal and David Mosko - sailed under the 'A' standard.  

Arizona added its second win of the night when Darian Townsend won the 200 IM.  Cal Martti Aljand went out well ahead of his morning swim to take the lead.  Townsend caught the freshman in the closing yards of the backstroke.  Stanford's Nate Cass pulled even with the duo heading into the final lap, but Townsend pulled away leaving Cass and Aljand second and third with automatic cuts.  In the consolation heat Cal's Mark Eckert secured himself a spot in the big meet with an Automatic cut.

Cal senior William Copeland captured the 50 free in 19.30, 0.24 ahead of Jason Dunford.  The heat was aways in a sea of Scarlet and Gold.  Cal and Stanford secured the top six spots including a three-way tie between Austin Staab, Joe Whittington and Jernej Godec for third.  David Dunford finished 6th.

The 50 final set up a showdown for the evening's final event with each of the top six finalists playing a role in the 200 free relay.  This time, it was the elder Dunford that got the jump on Copeland, besting the 50 free champ by 0.14.  Godec regained the lead with a 19.07 split.  David Dunford nearly pulled the Cardinal even before handing off to Eugene Godsoe.  It wasn't enough though as Graeme Moore sealed the deal to put Cal in first at 1:17.99.  Impressively, Arizona, with just one championship finalist in the 50, was able to keep the pressure on, finishing third in 1:18.45, just behind Stanford's 1:18.17.

After seven events, including one-meter diving that was completed last week, Stanford leads with 277 points to Cal's 258.  Second-ranked Arizona 240, Arizona State 157, Southern Cal 134, and Washington 77 round out the field.

"We seemed a little bit tentative in our relay, but we are swimming well," said Cal coach David Durden. "We are enjoying the results. We still have a long way to go. I feel the best two days of this meet are still in front of us."