Southern Cal Out to Early SMU Classic Lead

Southern Cal was nearly perfect in the first night of the SMU Classic.  The Trojans jumped out to an early lead in the six-team A-Final, B-Final invitational.  Only SMU's Candace Blackman stood in the way of a Trojan rout.

Blackman placed first in the Championship Final of the 200 free touching in at 1:47.83, 50 free with a time of 23.31 and anchored the winning 800 freestyle relay in 7:21.08.  The Senior propelled the Ponies to 149 points, just 12 points behind Southern Cal.  North Carolina stands third with 147 points,with Wisconsin (140), Alabama (119) and Arizona State (112) rounding out the field.

Southern Cal started out with a bang - crushing the meet and pool record in the 400-yard Medley Relay.  Kristen Lahey, Rebecca Soni, Tanya Krisman, and Rachael Waller hit the wall half of a pool length ahead of the field.  

The Trojans then continued with wins in both the 'A' and 'B' finals of the 400 IM.  Katinka  Hosszu notched meet and pool records with her 4:11.74.  After Blackman gave the hosts an event win in the 200 freestyle, Krisman was back for her second win of the night, with a 53.82 in the 100 butterfly while teammate Katy Houston gave USC a won in the 'B' heat.

The winning ways continued with Kristen Lahey breaking Natalie Coughlin's meet record in the 100 backstroke.  The senior touched first in 54.47.  Records continued to fall when Rebecca Soni and Katy Houston posting the top two times.  With each team limited to one entrant in each heat, that gave USC wins in both heats.  Soni's time of 1:00.32 slipped under Sarah Poewe (UGA)'s previous mark of 1:00.45.

The meet concludes tomorrow afternoon.