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Wertz, Longbotham Star for Seattle U at MPSF Meet

Wertz earns first individual points for Redhawks; Longbotham breaks own school record in 500 freestyle

Wertz, Longbotham Star for Seattle U at MPSF MeetWertz, Longbotham Star for Seattle U at MPSF Meet

Joe Wertz (Richland, Wash.) advanced to the scoring finals in the 200 individual medley, and Murray Longbotham (Mercer Island, Wash.) set a new school record in the 500 freestyle as the second day of the 2013 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Men's Swimming and Diving Championships took place Thursday at East Los Angeles Community College.

In the 200 individual medley preliminaries, Wertz finished with the 14th-fastest time with a mark of 1:52.37. In the "B" final, Wertz improved upon his morning time, finishing sixth in the race and 14th overall in the event with a mark of 1:51.98.

Also in the 200 IM, James Gilmore (Eugene, Ore.) finished in 22nd place in the preliminaries with a time of 1:53.65 to qualify for the bonus final. He won the bonus final in the evening by over two seconds with a time of 1:49.76, the second-fastest mark in program history. Gabe Wheeler (Round Rock, Texas) posted a season-best time of 1:56.56 to finish in 34th place in the preliminaries.

Longbotham finished his 500 freestyle preliminary with a time of 4:30.84, 3/10ths of a second faster than the record he set at last year's conference championships. In the bonus final, he finished third in 4:31.08 for a 19th place finish overall. Andy Cunningham (Cameron Park, Calif.) finished in 31st place in the morning preliminaries with a time of 4:34.79, followed by Nicolas Morrell (Bend, Ore.) in 34th place in 4:35.45 and Nick Connors (Richland, Wash.) in 37th place in 4:35.87.

Also in the preliminaries for the 500 freestyle, Chris Weinert (Gresham, Ore.) finished in 49th place with a time of 4:41.38, just ahead of Douglas Pizac (Salt Lake City, Utah) in 50th place in 4:41.74. Kyle Moline (Mercer Island, Wash.) finished in 52nd place with a time of 4:42.80, and Ali Abadi (Edmonds, Wash.) posted a time of 4:49.11 to finish in 56th place.

Seattle U began the evening session with a ninth place finish in the 200 freestyle relay, as Longbotham, Tyler Carriker (Everett, Wash.), Bart Wanot (Federal Way, Wash.), and Gilmore combined for a time of 1:22.40, the fourth-best time in program history. Tomas Mendez-Beck (Hillsboro, Ore.), John Fulmer (Kent, Wash.), Sam Donohue (Portland, Ore.), and Owen Bley-Male (Portland, Ore.) put together the Redhawks' ninth-fastest time in the event with a mark of 1:26.45.

Carriker also posted the team's fastest time in the 50 freestyle preliminaries, finishing in 32nd place with a mark of 21.01 seconds. Wanot finished in 37th place with a time of 21.18 seconds, Bley-Male posted a time of 21.60 seconds to finish in 46th place, and Chris Lynch (Mukilteo, Wash.) finished in 51st place in 21.98 seconds.

In the team standings, Seattle University currently sits in ninth place with 65 points. Wyoming pulled into the lead with 230.5 points, just ahead of BYU with 228 points and UNLV with 219 points.

The 2013 MPSF Swimming and Diving Championships will continue Friday, Feb. 22, starting at 10 a.m. with the preliminaries in the 400 individual medley, 100 butterfly, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 backstroke. The Friday evening session will begin at 6 p.m. with the finals of the 400 medley relay, followed by the finals of the five individual events.