FAIRFAX, Va. - The Washington State University women's swim team jumped out to a 107 point lead in a 12-team field after day 1 of the Patriot Invitational at George Mason University Friday.

Cougar swimmers recorded wins in four out of the five events held Friday, for a total score of 286 points. Ohio University holds second place with 179, and Boston College is in third with 143.

A WSU 200 freestyle relay team, powered by Taryn Ternent (Edenvale, South Africa), Rachel Dong (Paramount, Calif.), Lindsay Henahan (Rochester, N.Y.) and Christina Swanson (Bainbridge Island, Wash.), opened the meet by winning their event in a time of 1:35.07. Ohio University placed second at 1:37.19, and the WSU "B" team captured third place.

In the 500 freestyle, four Cougar swimmers placed in the top six. Freshman Semah Zavareh (Houston, Texas) grabbed second place in a time of 5:03.83. That time moved Zavareh into ninth place on WSU's all-time list. Also swimming well for the Cougars, Jill Olson (Seattle, Wash.) placed fourth, Katie Byrnes (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) finished fifth, and Becca Cohen (Portland, Ore.) grabbed sixth. Ohio's Kim Van Selm won the event in a time of 4:58.44.

Andree-Anne LeRoy, a freshman from Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada, shattered the WSU school record in winning the 200 individual medley with a time of 2:05.06. Three other Cougars placed in the top 10 for this event: Rachelle Carano (Reno, Nev.)-fifth, Rachel Dong-seventh, and Nicole Chinn (Seattle, Wash.)-10th.

In the 50 freestyle competition, once again the Cougars had four out of the top six finishers. Freshman Taryn Ternent won the event in a time of 23.93 seconds. Also Sara Schmied placed fourth, Lindsay Henahan fifth, and Christina Swanson sixth. A preliminary heat time of 23.74 moved Ternent in second place on WSU's all-time list for the event.

Concluding the day's competition, a team of LeRoy, Dong, Melissa Hubley, and Ternent led WSU to victory in the 400 medley relay. The team's time of 3:53.48 was nearly four seconds ahead of second-place Ohio's 3:57.33.

"We had a strong day of racing and working on the little things in the pool," said Suzanne Yee, WSU assistant swim coach. "Tomorrow is a new day and we will look at improving on the things we did well today and swimming even faster."

The Patriot Invitational will continue Saturday and Sunday, with preliminary heats beginning at 10 a.m. EST and finals at 6 p.m.