LONG BEACH, Calif. - This week the UC San Diego men's and women's swimming and diving teams are set to host the Toshiba Classic, a three-day event with the potential to be one of the fastest West Coast meets this year. The NCAA Championship-format meet will be held Thursday to Saturday at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif.
"With the likes of California and Stanford competing, we'll definitely see some high-level swimming," Tritons' head coach Scott McGihon said.
On the men's side, the Toshiba Classic field features 14 squads, including Stanford, third-place finishers in the 2009 NCAA Division I National Championships. UCSD, a member school of the Pacific Collegiate Swimming Conference, will also be competing with four other PCSC programs - Cal Baptist, Chapman, Soka and Seattle University.
The women's field includes 26 teams, with defending national champion California highlighting the group. Also included are Stanford, Hawaii and UCLA, who finished fourth, 29th and 41st respectively at the NCAA D-I National Championships this past spring. In addition to the Tritons, six other PCSC schools will be competing on the women's side - Cal Baptist, Chapman, Soka, Alaska Fairbanks, Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
"I'm interested to see how our team does with a little extra rest," said McGihon, referring to UCSD's six-day break in competition between Friday's meet at Santa Barbara and Thursday's start of the Toshiba Classic. "Hopefully we come out strong and get some NCAA qualifiers out of this event."
Heading into the Toshiba Classic, the Tritons' squads have combined for seven top times across the Division II level, between the men's and women's teams.
Sophomore Alex Henley is atop the leaderboard in the 200 and 500 free events, posting respective marks of 1:53.63 and 4:59.00. Also on the women's side, junior Anju Shimura owns the best's 200 backstroke time (2:05.57), Beth Dong is the 1000 free leader (10:25.12) and senior Karla Holman holds the top 200 fly mark (2:08.13). The UCSD women also carry the best 200 medley and 400 free relay times, 3:33.27 and 1:48.19 respectively.
On the men's side, the Tritons own their highest rankings in freestyle and breaststroke events. Senior Jereme Barnett-Woods, a transfer from the University of Washington, has posted the top 500 free time (4:40.46) and the second-best 1000 free mark (9:35.43). Fellow senior Juan Pablo Carrillo is the 100 breaststroke leader at 57.23 while freshman Jonathan Masehi-Lano carries the second-ranked 200 breaststroke mark (2:07.08).
