Pepperdine Looks to Build Upon Last Weekend's Success at the Arena Invitational Beginning Thursday - Pepperdine University Official Athletic Site

Pepperdine Looks to Build Upon Last Weekend's Success at the Arena Invitational Beginning Thursday

Swimmers gear up the Arena Classic, which features nearly several hundred swimmers from nearly 30 different teams.

Leslie Wade

Nov. 15, 2011

MALIBU, Calif. – After a weekend that saw one diver qualify for the NCAA Zone Regional, and 40 swimmers set season best times, the Pepperdine women’s swimming and diving team gears up for the Arena Invitational. The meet is perhaps the biggest in the country, with 26 men’s and women’s squads competing on Nov. 17-19 at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach, Calif.

“This meet is historically a fast meet,” explained head coach Nick Rodionoff. “Teams compete at this meet because they are trying to qualify for the NCAAs. We expect a lot of season, and even personal-best times to be lowered in the next three days.

“We also wanted to compete at the meet because this is where the PCSC Conference meet will be held next February,” continued Rodionoff. “It helps out student-athletes to become familiar with the pool and the venue.”

The Waves will have their work cut out for them, as they will be swimming against several top programs from the region. Competing women’s squads include Arizona State, BYU, California, Cal State Bakersfield, Fresno State, Hawaii, Loyola Marymount, Oregon State, Pacific, San Diego State, Stanford, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and San Diego.

Action gets underway on Thursday with the prelims and finals of the 200 freestyle relay, 500 freestyle, 200 IM, 50 freestyle and 400 medley relay.

The Arena Invitational continues on Friday with the 200 medley relay, 400 IM, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, 100 backstroke and 800 freestyle relay. The third and final day is filled with the 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 200 freestyle relay and 1,650 freestyle.

Live results can be followed here: http://results.liveswim.net/bp/Arena/?DB_OEM_ID=5800

Last weekend at the Cal Poly Shootout, senior diver Leslie Wade (Atlanta, Ga./The Lovett School) qualified for the NCAA Zone Regionals after scoring 257.20 points in the 1-meter. Nearly every Wave swimmer at the meet logged at least one season best performance and will look to ride that success to even better times in the Belmont Plaza pool this weekend.

Full results and recaps can be found at www.PepperdineSports.com at the conclusion of each day.