Stanford Takes Early Pac 10 Lead

Stanford Swimming opened up the Pac-10 Championships at Belmont Plaza in hopes of its 30th-straight conference title by finishing the first day of competition in first place.   Stanford picked up the win in the 800 free relay and second in the 200 medley.  California captured the Medley and finished third in the 800.

Stanford has 74 points and Cal has 72 points, with the Bears finishing first and third. USC, which were second and third, have 66 points.

Cal's medley of Guy Barnea, Damir Dugonjic, Graeme Moore and Nathan Adrian established a new Pac 10 meet record in the 200 with a time of 1:23.92.  That was more than a second off of the Pac 10 record the quartet put up as sophomores, but was good enough to lead the nation.

With four Pac-10 teams ranked in the top-10 to start the competiton, Stanford's Rob Andrews touched the wall ahead of USC's Dimitri Colupaeve with a time of 6:19.17. USC swam a time of 6:20.88.

Stanford actually trailed to start, with Bobby Bollier racing third behind USC and Cal. Mitch Stoehr then passed USC's Patrick White into second behind Cal's Samuel Metz, before Morgan Priestly moved in front on the third leg to stay passing both Cal's Isaac Howell and USC's Jack Wagner.

In the 200 medley relay, Cal took home the title with a time fo 1:23.92, ahead of Stanford's four-some of Matthew Swanston, Curtis Lovelace, Austin Staab and Alex Coville. Guy Barnea started things off for the Bears in the backstroke ahead of Swanston, as Damir Dugonjic extended the lead at the halfway point following the breast, before Stanford's Austin Staab closed the gap in the fly. Bear Olympiian Nathan Adrian countered with the fastest sprint to win it.

The championships run through Saturday in Long Beach.