SOUTH GATE, CA — Brandon Pon scored a second place finish in the 500 yard freestyle and the Leopards' men's relay teams added two top-three finishes as the University of La Verne swimming and diving teams opened the 2018 Collegiate Winter Invite.

The La Verne men's squad finished day one of the meet in second place with 398 points, trailing only NCAA Division II Biola.

The Leopards capped off day one with a second place finish in the 400 yard medley relay. The squad of Lorenzo DeLeon, Pon, CJ Woodward, and Kristofer Grigorian ended with a time of 3:43.56, finishing behind only Division II Biola.

The same combination of Leopards opened the meet with a third place finish in the men's 200 freestyle relay. The squad finished the race with a time of 1:29.63.

Pon had a solid night individually, finishing second in the 500 yard free in a tight race. The senior touched at 4:44.49 just behind Relands' Tom Jansen who won with a time of 4:44.30.

DeLeon added a top-three finish of his own, taking third in the 200 yard individual medley, clocking in at 2:00.09.  Woodward took sixth in the 50 yard freestyle with a time of 22:35 and Grigorian followed right behind in seventh place at 22:56.

On the women's side, Kayla Yip led La Verne with 13th place finish in the 50 freestyle with a time of 25.48. The women's squad currently sits in sixth place with 149 points.

La Verne continues the invite tomorrow with prelims 10 a.m. and finals at 5 p.m.