DALLAS—The No. 2 University of Florida men’s swimming and diving team turned in a solid performance in the opening day of the 23rd Annual Dallas Morning News Classic, however the Gators find themselves in second place. No. 6 California maintains the lead with 182 points at the end of the first day, while the Gators aren’t far behind with 158 points and a full day of competition remaining.

Leading the Gators tonight was the 800-yard freestyle relay team of Darian Townsend (Montrose, South Africa), Adam Sioui (Ontario, Canada), Brian Hartley (Indianapolis, Ind.) and Ryan Lochte (Daytona Beach. Fla.). The quartet not only took top honors in the race, but also established a new pool and meet record time of 6:34.14 in the process besting the previous mark of last year’s Florida squad of Carlos Jayme, Lochte, Kris Wiebeck (Tampa, Fla.) and Sioui by 12 hundredths of a second.

Lochte added two wins of his own to the Gators tally, claiming the top spot in the 400-yard individual medley in a time of 3:48.13 and captured first place in the 100-yard backstroke in a clocking of 47.66 seconds.

Senior diver Zach Wilcox (Yarrow Point, Wash.) recorded the only other Florida event title as he notched a score of 319.40 in the one-meter springboard competition.

The 400-yard medley relay team of Wiebeck, Bill Mrazek (Tallahassee, Fla.), Sioui and Nick Borreca (Honolulu, Hawaii) placed third in a time of 3:20.07.

Sioui would return to the pool in the 200-yard freestyle where he raced to a time of 1:39.72 to place third overall.

Townsend added two fourth-place efforts in the 50-yard freestyle and in the 100-yard butterfly, posting times of 21.02 and 50.73 seconds respectively.

The Gators return to action tomorrow as they complete the final day of competition at the Dallas Morning News Classic, while also traveling across town for a dual meet with Head Coach Gregg Troy’s alma mater, Texas Christian.  Log onto www.GatorZone.com to track the day’s action as well as find the full results and recaps of the meets.

-UF-