Costella swims to second in elite meet

The Carson Tigersharks are holding their own against some of the world's best swimmers at the Santa Clara International swim meet.

Lauren Costella placed second in the 1,500-meter freestyle to lead the Tigersharks' effort during the first two days of the event. Tigershark coach Jim Puleo said virtually every event in the meet features either an American record or world record holder.

"The kids are swimming well," Puleo said. "They're swimming faster than they did last year. They've got some big guns here."

In the 1,500 free, Costella improved her time by 11 seconds from last year, finishing in 16 minutes, 43.66 seconds. "That's a real good swim for her," Puleo said.

Costella was able to negative split her swim in which she swam the first half in 8:22 and the second half in less than 8:22.

In the 800 free, Justin Barber finished in 8:49.66 and Ryan Costella finished in 8:54.40. In the 100 free, Tara Theilemann finished in 1:03.16 and Ryan Costella finished the 200 free in 2:06.87.

Despite swimming faster than he did last year, Barber was just able to qualify 20th in the 400 individual medley. Last year, he qualified 15th.

He finished in 4:39.50. "That was a real solid effort on his part," Puleo said.

In the 400 free, Lauren Costella qualified 18th in 4:23.50. She swam faster than last year whe she qualified 11th. In the finals, Costella moved up to 17th.

Theilemann also had a solid swim in the 400 free, finishing in 4:35.51. A half hour after swimming in the 400 free, Lauren Costella finished the 100 butterfly in 1:08.30.

Today, Lauren Costella will swim in the 400 I.M. and 200 free, Barber will swim in the 100 fly and the 400 free, Theilemann will swim in the 200 free and Ryan Costella will compete in the 400 free. The meet concludes on Sunday.