A trio of Bay Area collegiate swimmers earned victories on the opening night of the Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara and Olympic gold medalist Conor Dwyer (Winnetka, Ill./Trojan Swim Club) recorded the world’s third-fastest time in the men’s 200-meter freestyle.

USA Swimming National Team member Josh Prenot (Santa Maria, Calif./California Aquatics) took the top spot in the men’s 100m breaststroke, taking it in the final 10 meters where he claimed the victory over Syrian’s Azad Al-Barazi with a time of 1 minute, 1.15 seconds. Al-Barazi touched just .23 behind Prenot clocking 1:01.38.

“I think I’m in a good spot for (Olympic) Trials,” Prenot said. “The work has been put in, now I just need to sharpen the details and rest up.”

Sarah Haase (Rockvillie, Md./Stanford Aquatics) claimed the women’s 100m breaststroke in 1:07.05, after a strong swim of 1:06.31 this morning good for the No. 7 time in the world for 2016. 

Seth Stubblefield (Plano, Texas/California Aquatics) earned the top spot in a strong field of the men’s 100m butterfly, winning in 52.31, by two-hundredths of a second over teammate Tom Shields (Huntington Beach, Calif./California Aquatics). Giles Smith (Baltimore, Md./Phoenix Swim Club) took third in 52.91.

Dwyer posted the world’s third-fastest time of 2016 in the 200m free in 1:45.41. He placed second behind Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang of China, who recorded best time in the world in 2016 with 1:44.82.

Held at the George F. Haines International Swim Center, the three-day meet consists of prelims at 9 a.m. PT and finals at 5 p.m. PT. A live webcast of the entire meet will be available at usaswimming.org.

Other winners Friday in Santa Clara included:

• Australia’s Emma McKeon in the women’s 200m freestyle in 1:56.36
• Canada’s Noemie Thomas with a meet record in the women’s 100m fly in 57.73
• Australia’s Keryn McMaster in the women’s 400m I.M. in 4:38.83
• Australia’s Mitch Larkin for the men’s 400m I.M. in 4:17.35.
 
Complete results from Santa Clara can be found here.  

Following this meet will be the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Swimming, held June 26-July 3 in Omaha, Nebraska.

The Arena Pro Swim Series at Santa Clara is one of seven stops of the 2015-16 Arena Pro Swim Series. As part of USA Swimming’s partnership with swimwear leader Arena, the circuit will feature a record $350,000 in overall prize money. Swimmers may earn awards for top-three finishes in all individual Olympic events across the series. At each meet, $1,000 will be provided for a first-place finish, $600 for second and $200 for third. In addition to the single-event prize money, the overall male and female winners of the season-long Series will earn a $10,000 bonus.

For the third consecutive season, longtime USA Swimming partner BMW will award the grand prize of a one-year lease of a BMW vehicle to the highest-scoring eligible male and female U.S. swimmers. 

Male and female overall Arena Pro Swim Series champions will be honored at the conclusion of the 2015-16 series based on the number of points accumulated throughout the seven meets. Participants will be awarded points in each individual Olympic event throughout the duration of the Series (Five points for first, three for second, one point for third place).