Nov. 16, 2011

STANFORD, Calif.-- The Stanford men will head to Long Beach, the long-time home to its record 30-straight Pac-10 titles, when it swims Thursday through Saturday for the Arena Invite. The women's team will also be in Long Beach this weekend. The divers will head to the Wildcat Invite in Tucson.

The 17-team women's field and nine-team men's field in Long Beach will feature teams from the West Coast and have preliminaries at 9 a.m and finals at 6 p.m on Thursday and 5:30 p.m on Friday and Saturday.

The men's team this season, following six meets have seen its freshmen make waves very quickly and its senior class hold off its younger counter parts.

For the veterans, sprinter Aaron Wayne ranks 17th nationally in the 50 and 100 freestyles, while classmate Geoff Cheah ranks ninth nationally in the 100 free (44.36). That duo along with Andrew Saeta and Rob Andrews have the Cardinal ranking ninth nationally in the 200 free relay (1:21.19).

The team's two ultimate utility swimmers the last two years-- seniors Bobby Bollier and David Mosko-- continue to excel as they close out their collegiate careers. Bollier ranks third nationally in the 200 fly (1:47.54) and18th in the 100 fly (48.88) while Mosko is 17th in the 200 fly (1:48.91) and  20th nationally in the 500 free (4:29.91). Bollier dominated the three individual fly events last week at Cal.

One of America's top long distance threats, senior Chad La Tourette, is coming off his third-straight win at the Cal tri-distance in the longest freestyle events, and also ranks sixth nationally in the 500 free (4:25.59) and 12th in the 1000 free (9:07.77).

Freshman David Nolan was the third winner at Cal last week, with the top combined times in the 100, 200 and 400 individual medleys. Nolan ranks No. 6 in the the 400 IM (3:54.42) and No. 9 in the 200 IM (1:50.000). Freshman Jon Edwards ranks just ahead of Nolan in the 200 IM with a time of 1:49.86, while Matt Thompson (tenth) and Eirik Ravnan (20th) rank in the top-20 in the 400 IM.

Edwards also ranks No. 9 in the 100 back (48.41) and No. 16 in the 200 back (1:47.19). Classmate Erich Penske has the nation's sixth-best 100 fly time (48.24).

Canadian Matthew Swanston, a junior, is one of Canada's top backstrokers, ranking No. 5 this season 200 back (1:45.56).

The divers will have its final collegiate event in Tucson prior to Winter Nationals in Nashville in mid-December. Eighty-eight divers are signed up including Stanford All-American Stephanie Phipps and 2011 Zone qualifiers Taylor Sishc, Noah Garcia, Dhruv Tyagi and Kylie Rosenstock. Freshman Kristian Ipsen is currently at a USOC/NBC shoot for the upcoming Olympic coverage.

Live Scoring of Arena Invite
http://results.liveswim.net/bp/Arena/?DB_OEM_ID=5800

Event Schedule
Thursday, November 17
200 Freestyle Relay
500 Freestyle
200 Individual Medley
50 Freestyle
400 Medley Relay

Friday, November 18
200 Medley Relay
400 Individual Medley
100 Butterfly
200 Freestyle
100 Breaststroke
100 Backstroke
800 Freestyle Relay

Saturday, November 19
1650 Freestyle
200 Backstroke
100 Freestyle
200 Breaststroke
200 Butterfly
400 Freestyle Relay

Live Scoring of Wildcat Diving Invite
https://secure.meetcontrol.com/divemeets/system/meetinfoext.php?meetnum=1725