CLEVELAND - The first day of competition in the 2009 Christmas Invitational Swim Meet, hosted by Delta State University at the DSU Aquatics Center, concluded with Rice University leading the women's meet and the Statesmen holding a slim lead in the men's meet.

The Statesmen swimming and diving squad qualified eight swimmers for Nationals by posting some of their best times of the year.

They opened the men's events with a win in the 200 Yard Freestyle relay by Adam Milecz, Deniz Guner, Cameron Weidele and Justin Ingvoldstad. They posted a Division II B cut time of 1:22.96.

Freshman Adam Dajak posted a Division II A cut time of 4:27.23, which is also a new Delta State record, on his way to winning the 500 Yard Freestyle. Wolfgang Mairinger finished third in that race with another Division II A cut time of 4:31.52.

Justin Ingvoldstad also posted a Division II A cut time, with his win in the 50 Yard Freestyle at a time of 20.49 in the finals.

Coach Brian Hein was very impressed with his men, who faced some of the nation's best.

"Today was a great start for us. We swam well in the preliminaries and even better in the finals," he said. "We were able to go out and capitalize on the hard work that we have put in so far this season. We will need to keep our focus over the next two days."
 
As for the Lady Statesmen, the first day of the Delta State Christmas Invitational didn't go as planned. The ladies find themselves in fifth with a score of 116 points. Rice University is atop the women's scores at 267 points.

One bright spot was the time of Samantha Fajardo in the 50 Yard Freestyle. She qualified for nationals with a NCAA Division II A cut time of  23.91 on her way to winning that event.

The Lady Statesmen also finished third in the 400 Yard Medley Relay using the efforts of Alyce Meador, Amanda Guidry, Samantha Fajardo and Mary Katherine Waddell, posting a time of 2:07.12.

The Statesmen and Lady Statesmen will be back in the pool Sunday and Monday to conclude the DSU Christmas Invitational.

Stay locked on Gostatesmen.com for all of the updates from the meet.

Complete scores are below

WOMEN'S SCORES
1 Rice University 267
2.University of Tampa 189
3 University of New Orleans 148.5
4 Univ of the Incarnate Word  133.5
5 Delta State University  116
6 U of Arkansas, Little Rock 5 

MEN'S SCORES
1 Delta State University  217.5
2 Univ of the Incarnate Word  214
3 University of New Orleans 204.5
4 The University of Tampa 183