March 5, 1999
LONG BEACH, Calif - California is threatening cross-bay rival Stanford's 17-year stranglehold on the Pac-10 Men's Championships as the Golden Bears hold a 520-484 lead over the Cardinal. USC is third (436), followed by Arizona State in fourth (305), Arizona in fifth (282) and Washington in sixth (166). The competition is being held at the Belmont Plaza Pool.
Cal remained on top due to the swimming of junior Nuk Sirisanont. Sirisanont recorded an automatic NCAA qualifying time of 3:48.63 in the 400 individual medley to take home the championship. Freshman Mark Warkentin of USC finished third at 3:50.30, followed by Arizona State sophomore Austin Paulsen at 3:51.21.
In the 100 butterfly, a trio of seniors stole the show. Stanford senior Dod Wales repeated as conference champion with a time of 46.66 to edge ASU's Francisco Sanchez who swam 46.96. Cal's Dan Lindstrom finished third at 47.34.
USC senior Bela Szabados held off Arizona junior Ryk Neethling and sophomore teammate Phil Demers, with a time of 1:35.36 to win his third straight crown in the 200 freestyle. Neethling swam 1:36.12 and Demers a 1:36.21 to finish second and third respectively.
Stanford's Anthony Robinson won his first Pac-10 individual title with a swim of 54.08 in the 100 breastoke. The sophomore's time was almost a half-second better than USC sophomore Slawek Richter. Richter swam 54.56 for second followed by Cal freshman Andrew Chan who came in at 55.01.
Three Stanford seniors pulled off a sweep of the medels in the 100 backstroke, led by Justin Ewers who won his first Pac-10 individual title in a time of 47.62. Dan Schultz finished second at 48.00, while Tate Blahnik finished third at 48.21.
In the 200 medley relay, Stanford won its 11th straight Pac-10 title. The team of Blahnik, Robinson, Wales and Ewers swam 1:26.80 to beat Cal and USC who tied for second at 1:28.44.
USC won the final event of the evening in the 800 freestyle relay. The squad of Mark Kwok Bret Awbrey, Demers Szabados turned in a swim of 6:26.28 to hold off Cal which swam 6:30.52. The event's defending champion Stanford finished third at 6:32.75.
The Pac-10 Men's Swimming Championships resume Saturday morning beginning with preliminaries at 11 a.m. and finals at starting at 6 p.m. at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach. Admission is $8 fir adults, $4 for students and seniors.
