GWANGJU, South Korea – July 7, 2015– Leah Smith (Pittsburgh, Pa.) in the women’s 400-meter freestyle, Josh Prenot (Santa Maria, Calif.) in the men’s 200m breaststroke and Team USA’s women’s 800m free relay all were victorious Tuesday on night four of the World University Games at the Nambu University International Aquatics Center.

Following a meet record of 4 minutes, 4.66 seconds in the morning prelims, Smith and Lindsay Vrooman (Baden, Pa.) went wire-to-wire in the top two spots en route to gold and silver in the women’s 400m free. They finished in 4:05.29 and 4:07.28, respectively, with Italy’s Martina De Memme taking bronze in 4:08.95.

After tying for the win in the men’s 200m IM on Monday, Prenot picked up his second gold medal in as many nights, as he took the men’s 200m breast title in 2:08.90 ahead of Japan’s Kazuki Kohinata (2:09.08) and Great Britain’s Craig Benson (2:09.10).

The U.S. women led from the start and set a meet record in the 800m free relay with a time of 7:53.88, cruising to gold to close the evening. Smith led off the relay, followed by Hali Flickinger (Spring Grove, Pa.), Chelsea Chenault (Concord, Calif.) and Shannon Vreeland (Overland Park, Kansas). China was second in 8:01.09, followed by Japan in third in 8:01.18.  

“We were looking to do the best we could to beat that record, and we were really excited about finishing the race up strong and winning,” Chenault said. Team USA set the previous meet record of 7:55.02 in 2011.

Rounding out the medalists for Team USA were Cal teammates Elizabeth Pelton (Baltimore, Md.) and Rachel Bootsma (Eden Prairie, Minn.), who earned silver and bronze in the women’s 100m back with respective times of 1:00.65 and 1:00.78. Madisyn Cox (Lubbock, Texas) took home silver in the women’s 200m IM in 2:12.77.

Over the first four days of competition in Gwangju, Team USA tops the medal count in the pool with 21 total medals, 10 gold, seven silver and four bronze.

In other finals action Tuesday, Andrew Seliskar (McLean, Va.) was eighth in men’s 200m fly in 1:57.67.

A number of Team USA swimmers advanced to finals in their respective events with solid semifinal swims Tuesday. Complete meet details, including results, can be found here.

Pool action continues through Friday with prelim sessions at 8:30 a.m. locally (7:30 p.m. EDT the previous day), with finals set for 7 p.m. locally (6 a.m. EDT).

In the United States, ESPN3, ESPNU and the Longhorn Network will air coverage from July 3-9. A one-hour swimming and diving recap show will air on ESPNU on July 16. A complete webcast and broadcast schedule can be found here. 

The World University Games feature 21 different sports and thousands of student-athletes from more than 170 countries. The event was created to celebrate university students and their commitment to education and sport. 

Note: Team USA’s media guide for the 2015 World University Games is available at usaswimming.org/media.