With two months to go before the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in , , the men’s swim team finds itself with a high seed in several events as it looks to improve on its ninth place finish at the 2007 national championships.
The 200 medley relay team of Bryson Chiu (, ), Doug Djang (, ), Chris Coley (, ), and Bryant Bevers () presently is the top seed in that event with a time of 1:32.82 achieved at the Husky Invitational in late November. The time is 1/100ths of a second faster than the time posted by the quartet from at the Eastern Michigan Invitational.
Coley is ’s highest seeded individual, presently seeded third in the 100 butterfly with a time of 50.00 seconds. He is also seeded 17th in the 200 butterfly with a time of 1:55.09. Coley, the 2006 Division II national champion in the 100 butterfly, is looking to add to his seven All-America honors.
Newcomer Jakub Jiracek () is seeded in the top ten in three events. He is fifth in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:05.19, seventh in the 400 individual medley with a time of 4:03.38, and ninth in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 57.51 seconds. Jiracek will be looking to add to the ten individual titles he won while swimming for from 2004 to 2006.
Djang is seeded 17th in the 50 freestyle with a top time of 21.23 seconds. Chiu is seeded 19th in both the 200 individual medley (1:55.07) and 400 individual medley (4:08.47) and is seeded 21st in the 100 backstroke with a time of 52.09 seconds.
Although he is seeded in two events, senior Gordon Smith () still needs an “A” cut to officially qualify for the national meet in March. Smith is seeded 10th in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:35.19 and 16th in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:41.52.
The Seattle University men’s and women’s swim teams have three events remaining before the national meet, beginning with a meet in Burnaby, B.C., against Simon Fraser on Saturday, Jan. 26. After facing the of in Way, , on Thursday, Jan. 31, the teams will prepare for the Pacific Collegiate Swim Conference Championships in , from Feb. 13-16.