The No. 1 Arizona men’s swimming team continued its trend of breaking records in the Pacific 10 Conference men’s swimming championships last night in Long Beach, Calif.

The 800-yard relay team of senior Darian Townsend, junior Nicolas Nilo and sophomores Jean Basson and Joel Greenshields set a Pac-10 record – and the second-fastest time in the country for that event this year – at Belmont Olympic Pool, with their time of 6:16.77, nearly eight seconds faster than second-place Stanford.

“”Joel Greenshields had one of the best swims he’s had since he’s been at Arizona,”” said UA head swimming coach Frank Busch. “”He’s just all of a sudden elevated himself to one of the guys we can really count on now.””

The Wildcats couldn’t quite continue their total dominance as they took second in the 200y medley relay, however, it did take a school record time to top Arizona. California’s ‘A’ team narrowly edged the Arizona ‘A’ team – seniors Ivan Barnes, Townsend and Albert Subirats and sophomore Jordan Smith – by 0.46 seconds to prevent the Wildcats from sweeping the night’s events.

Thanks to another stellar showing in relay events, Arizona finds itself in an unfamiliar position: It’s ahead of Stanford in the Pac-10 championships. The Cardinal have won the last 26 Pac-10 titles and sit just eight points behind the Wildcats, who have tallied 74 points so far. It is particularly surprising due to all of Stanford’s swimmers being tapered – their bodies are shaved – while less than half the Arizona squad is tapered for the meet.

“”I’d have to say things are going our way right now,”” Busch said. “”Whether we have enough to do it I’m not sure, but right now our kids are doing a great job.””