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Men swim for Pac-10 titles today


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CLAIRE C. LAURENCE/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Senior Nate Stevens competes against ASU Saturday, Feb. 12 at the Hillenbrand Aquatic Center. The men's swimming team competes today in the Pac-10 Championship in Long Beach, California running through Saturday.
By Allison Hamila
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Wednesday, March 2, 2005
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Long Beach, Calif., will be invaded by top swimming competition today through Saturday as the No. 8 Arizona men's swimming team competes in the Pacific 10 Championship against some of the nation's best teams, including No. 1 Cal, No. 3 Stanford and No. 9 Southern California.

The preliminary action begins at noon with the finals scheduled for 6 p.m. at Belmont Plaza.

Last year, the men placed third in the Pac-10 and fifth in 2003.

"We are hoping to make some individuals marks and take those to NCAAs, the guys are really excited and ready to compete," said Arizona head coach Frank Busch.

This is the meet where the Wildcat men are looking to make a lot of NCAA consideration times and NCAA standards, said Busch.

Last year at the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay team took second place, and junior Lyndon Ferns took second in the 50y freestyle.

"The team is really excited to go, the atmosphere is very competitive and we are ready to swim," said Ferns, who won a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece as part of the South African 400-meter free relay team.

Ferns is joined by fellow Olympians Simon Burnett and Gerhard Zandberg.

Burnett, who competed for England, is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation in two individual events including the 50y and 200y freestyles.

Burnett holds the U.S. Open, NCAA and Pac-10 records in the 200y freestyle, all were set in December's Texas Invitational in Austin, Texas.

Busch said he is hoping some of the team's newcomers will be able to make some NCAA standards at the meet. Busch said that he thinks freshman Matt Biel has an outside chance to make a standard and that some other freshmen could have the chance as well.

"Everyone is excited to swim their best and to possibly make a standard," Busch said.

Since 1994, the men's team has not finied out of the conferences top-10 at the championships.

With the women placing second in their Pac-10 Championships last week, the men are looking for a similar, if not better finish this weekend.

"The closer the team gets to their opportunity the more confidence that they have," Busch said.

Busch also added that the men are more wound up about the championships and that it is a little bit different from the women's side. Bush said he knows the men are going to have a good meet, whereas with the women it was a little up in the air.

The men's diving team competed last weekend in Seattle with the women's squad, but their scores will be factored into the results of this week's Pac-10 Championship swimming to determine an all around winner.



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