SWIMMING / PACIFIC 10 MEN’S MEET : Stanford Set to Defend Title

New faces should emerge in the sprints, but Stanford again is expected to dominate the three-day Pacific 10 Conference men’s swimming championships, which open today at the Belmont Plaza Pool in Long Beach.

The field is wide open in the 50-yard freestyle today and the 100 freestyle Saturday. The top swimmer is Cardinal senior Bill Schell, who finished third in the both events last year. Other contenders are teammate Joe Hudepohl, second in the 100 freestyle last year, and UCLA’s Kyle Depold.

Bruin Sven Hackmann could challenge Arizona State’s Cristiano Michelena, the defending Pac-10 champion in the 500 freestyle and 1,650 freestyle, in both events.

Stanford, the defending NCAA champion, will be trying to win its 13th consecutive Pac-10 title. Its swimmers will be defending six individual titles: Trip Zedlitz in the 200 individual medley today; Hudepohl in the 200 freestyle, Derek Weatherford in the 100 backstroke and Tyler Mayfield in the 100 breaststroke Friday, and Kurl Grote in the 200 breaststroke and Weatherford the 200 backstroke Saturday.