LONG BEACH, Calif. - The UC San Diego swimming teams took part in the first day of the Arena Invitational on Thursday at the Belmont Olympic Pool in Long Beach.

Preliminaries and finals took place in the 200 free and 400 medley relays, 500 free, 200 IM and 50 free on both the men's and women's side. The Tritons put together a successful day, as both women's relay teams recorded NCAA automatic qualifying times. Through ten events, the Triton men are sixth with 150 points, while the women have 96 points, good for 10th overall.

"It is great being at such a high level meet. It enabled us to raise our performance level," said head coach Scott McGihon.

The women's 200 relay time of 1:34.39 earned them 11th place thanks to the performances of Olivia Fountain, Amber Tan, Anju Shimura and Jessica Ferguson. Shimura then joined with Anji Shakya, Neda Nguyen, and Alex Henley for a ninth place time of 3:47.97 in the 400 medley event. Shakya also placed 16th in the 500 free during the day, finishing with a final of 4:58.89 after a preliminary time of 4:56.33 that bested her previous personal record by 13 seconds.

The men's 200 free relay brought UCSD's best finish of the day as Eric Owens, Nick Korth, Adam Rice and Blake Langland placed sixth in a time of 3:20.28. Alex Merrill, Blake Langland, Reid McCallum and Sam Stromberg finished seventh with a time of 1:23.10 in the 200 free relay race. In the 500 free, Matt Herman placed 12th in 4:31.11, while Korth and Rice finished 13th and 14th in the 200 IM with times of 1:52.28 and 1:52.29, respectively.

"What's been most impressive is that we've been fast in virtually every event we've swum, not just one or two," said McGihon. "This has been a great start and we should continue to get better as the meet progresses."

Tomorrow's schedule includes the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 fly, 200 free, 100 breast, 100 back, and 800 free relay. Preliminaries begin at 9:30 a.m. with the finals slated for a 6:00 p.m. start.