LONG BEACH, Calif. - The CSUB men's swimming team, led once again by it's distance swimmers, turned in a solid performance on the opening day of the 2008 UCI/Nike Cup in Long Beach Thursday, holding steady at sixth place in the team standings through the first of three days of competition.
"We are swimming fantastically," said Roadrunner Head Coach Chris Hansen. "Our distance group continues to jump start meets for us and the sprinters were excellent today as well."
The CSUB 200 free relay team of Malcolm Reid, Sampo Sissala, Rene Hjorth and Thomas Peart kicked off Thursday night's final session with a 1:25.84, sixth place finish. Reid led off with a personal-best 21.43 for his 50 yard leg and his three teammates followed with solid swims to outreach seventh place Cal State Northridge by just 0.06 seconds.
The distance trio of Henry Holmberg, Nathan Vizcarra and Bobby Klagge all used solid prelim times in the morning to reach the finals of the 500 free. Holmberg took fourth overall with a season-best 4:28.50, trailing only a pair of swimmers from UNLV and one from Air Froce.
Vizcarra swam a season-best 4:40.70 in the prelims, then placed 15th in the finals with a time of 4:41.20, while Klaggs' 4:43.92, 25th place finish was more than 13 seconds faster than his previous season-best.
Hjorth earned a place in the 50 free finals after swimming a season-best 21.52 in the prelims. The junior sprinter then placed 21st in the finals, touching the wall in 21.67.
In the final event of the night, the Roadrunners' 400 medley relay team took sixth in a time of 3:26.69. Luka Leskur led off the relay with a season-best 50.64 in the backstroke, followed by Griffin Bracke, Hjorth and Reid.
