Another win for Costella at Pacific Swimming meet

Lauren Costella started to feel the effects of swimming six events in three days in the last 100 yards of the 200 freestyle.

The Carson Tigersharks swimmer had won her first four events of the Pacific Senior Short Course Championships and began Sunday by winning the 1,000-yard freestyle. But after leading the first 100 yards of the 200 free, Costella had to settle for third behind Napa Valley's Robyn Miller and San Jose's Kiana Taheri.

Costella also had to settle for second in the 200 individual medley in an effort that represented the entire day's performance by the Carson Tigersharks at the Carson City Aquatic Facility. After having strong performances during the first two days of the event, the Tigersharks still had their share of strong performances, but didn't quite perform as well as hoped.

"I don't think it was as good as we have had in the past two days," said Tigersharks coach Jack Simon about his team's performance Sunday. "I was a little disappointed."

Simon also said Costella could have swam better. "She lost two races she should have won," he said.

But Costella has still been impressive in the meet with five wins along with second and third place finishes. Costella and the Tigersharks are looking for a strong finish today as well.

"I think we'll have a little better day tomorrow," said Simon about the last day of the meet today.

Costella will complete a run of 10 events in four days as she will compete in the 200 backstroke, 200 breaststroke and 200 butterfly today.

"Tomorrow I think will be a really good day," said Costella about her events today.

Simon said Costella and Tara Theileman should do well in the 200 back. He said it would be a breakthrough for Theileman to break two minutes, 10 seconds in the 200 back.

In addition, Simon said Justin Barber and Ryan Theileman should do well in today's men's 400 I.M. "I think Justin's got a pretty good shot at that one," Simon said.

Costella won the 1,000 free in 10:15.57 while Theileman placed sixth (10:51.56). "I was kind of scrambling," said Costella about the race. "It wasn't near my fast time."

In the 200 free, Costella finished in 1:57.12, with Taheri finishing in 1:56.99 and Miller finishing in 1:55.16.

"The last 100 was definitely a killer," Costella said. "But throughout the whole race, I didn't have a good feel for the water."

The 200 I.M. was a showdown between three of the strongest swimmers in the meet in Costella, Melissa Chandler of Reno Aquatics and USC-bound Melissa Greene, who won Sunday's 100 butterfly and placed sixth this past summer at the United States Olympic Trials.

Costella took the lead during the second leg, the backstroke, but couldn't hold off Chandler in Chandler's strongest and third leg, the breaststroke. Chandler, a McQueen High School student, had too big of a lead in the freestyle anchor leg for Costella to overcome.

"I think I was catching Melissa in the freestyle, but my breaststroke leg wasn't very good," Costella said. "I need to improve on that. My freestyle leg could have been a little stronger, also. But that was probably because of the events I just finished."

Chandler finished in 2:09.93 while Costella finished in 2:10.58 and Greene finished in 2:11.78.

Also on Sunday, the Douglas Dolphins' Eddie Shepard placed second in the 200 fly in 2:00.17 while Barber placed third in the 200 fly in 2:20.99. In addition, Simon said Ryan Theileman had a strong swim in the event.

Shepard also placed third in the 200 backstroke (2:00.47) while Peter Keegan placed seventh in the 100 free (50:35) for the Tigersharks.

The meet will begin today with the preliminaries at 9 a.m. The finals will begin at 3 p.m.