COLLEGE SWIMMING / PAC-10 CHAMPIONSHIPS : Stanford Wins Ninth Title in a Row

Stanford won two events Wednesday night on its way to winning the Pacific 10 conference men’s swimming championship at Belmont Plaza in Long Beach.

The championship was the ninth in a row for the Cardinal, which tied USC’s record between 1961 and 1969. Stanford finished the three-day meet with 924 points, followed by UCLA with 643 and USC with 604 points.

Stanford’s Alex Kostich gave the Cardinal its first victory of the night when he won the 1,650-yard freestyle with a time of 14:55.63. Jason Plummer, also of Stanford, was second and Lars Jorgensen of USC was third.

In the next event, the 200-yard backstroke, USC’s Gary Anderson scored his second victory of the meet with an NCAA qualifying time of 1:46.83. Anderson, who won two gold medals for Canada at the last month’s Commonwealth Games, came from behind in the last 30 yards to beat Jeff Rouse of Stanford.

USC got another championship when Erik Ran passed Brian Kurza of UCLA in the last five yards of the 100-yard freestyle and finished with a time of 43.53. Kurza was second.

“Because my second 50 is so strong, I knew I’d beat him when I saw him at 75 yards,” said Ran, who is from the Netherlands.

UCLA’s Andrea Cecchi won his second event of the meet when he won the 200-yard breaststroke with an NCAA qualifying time of 1:58.23. Matt Rodgers of Stanford was second.

In the 200-yard butterfly, Martin Roberts of California waited until the second half of the race to pass Matjaz Kozelj of UCLA. Roberts’ time was 1:46.02.

Stanford also won the the 400-yard freestyle relay.