After three second-place finishes, senior Jakub Jiracek (Nymburk, Czech Republic) earned the second Division II individual national title in Seattle University swimming history, winning the 200 breaststroke on the final night of the 2008 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships Saturday at the Mizzou Aquatics Center.
Posting the second-fastest time in the morning preliminaries, Jiracek earned his 11th career individual national title (the first ten coming at Drury University) by finishing the 200 breaststroke final in 1:58.55, almost four-tenths of a second faster than runner-up Zlatan Hamzic of host school Missouri Science and Technology. Jiracek, now a four-time winner in the 200 breaststroke, joins Chris Coley (Austin, Texas), the 2006 winner in the 100 butterfly, as SeattleU Division II national champions.
In the same race, Bryson Chiu (Carmel, Ind.) finished in fifth place with a time of 2:02.61. Doug Djang (Seattle, Wash.) qualified for the "B" final and finished third in that race for an overall 11th place standing with a final time of 2:05.14.
In the final event of the entire meet, Djang, Gordon Smith (Kennewick, Wash.), Coley, and Jiracek finished third in the "B" final of the 400 freestyle relay for an 11th place finish overall with a time of 3:04.33. Bryant Bevers (Federal Way, Wash.) swam the second leg of the relay in the morning preliminaries to help the team qualify for the evening finals.
As a unit, the Seattle University men’s team posted its best-ever performance in the Division II Championships with 214 points, good enough for eighth place. Drury University easily won the men’s team competition but was denied the women’s team title, as Truman State earned that honor by 12.5 points.
This was the final collegiate competition for Jiracek, Coley, Smith, and Francesca Reale (Gig Harbor, Wash.). This was also the final NCAA meet for the Seattle University swim program until the completion of the transition to Division I in 2012-2013. Bevers, Chiu, and Djang will return next season, as the program will still compete for PCSC honors and will start building for the future by facing Division I competition.