With a representative in every final Thursday night, the Seattle University men’s swim team amassed 108 points, while the women’s team used strong performances in the relays to earn 76 points on the first day of the Husky Invitational at the King County Aquatics Center.
Senior Gordon Smith (Kennewick, Wash.) had Seattle’s best individual performance, finishing 13th in the 500 freestyle finals in a time of 4:36.27 after finishing in 4:35.19 in the morning preliminaries, good enough for a NCAA "B" qualifying cut.
Sophomores Doug Djang (Seattle, Wash.) and Bryson Chiu (Carmel, Ind.) also earned "B" cuts in their respective individual events. Djang finished 28th in the 50 freestyle with a time of 21.23 seconds, while Chiu placed 31st in the 200 individual medley in 1:55.07. Djang also competed in the preliminaries of the 25 freestyle, finishing 15th in 9.89 seconds.
Smith and Djang were joined by Bryant Bevers (Federal Way, Wash.) and Chris Coley (Austin, Texas) in the 200 freestyle relay, finishing eighth in a time of 1:24.87. Chiu, Djang, Coley, and Smith nearly qualified for the national championships in the 400 medley relay, swimming the event in 3:25.54 for a fifth place finish.
On the women’s side, the evening session started with Elizabeth Hanohano (Honolulu, Hawaii), Francesca Reale (Gig Harbor, Wash.), Alison Colnon (Seattle, Wash.), and Kelsey Henan (Billings, Mont.) combining to finish 11th in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:40.53. Reale, Carole Triem (Petersburg, Alaska), Alex Weiss (Reno, Nev.), and Henan finished eighth in the 400 medley relay with a time of 4:01.77.
With 108 points, the men’s team is in seventh place after day one, 26 points ahead of Division I school Wyoming. Michigan has opened a sizable lead in the men’s competition with 461.5 points, followed by California (325), USC (224), Washington (217.5), UC Santa Barbara (177), and Hawaii (145). The SU women’s team is in tenth place with 76 points, just four points behind Boise State and 18 points ahead of UC Davis. Washington leads the women’s competition with 412 points, followed by USC (390), Notre Dame (288), UC Santa Barbara (217), Wyoming (168), Oregon State (137), Hawaii (118), and Whitworth (92).
The Husky Invitational continues Friday and Saturday with morning preliminaries beginning at 9:30 a.m. and finals starting at 6 p.m.