Another long-standing Seattle University swimming record fell Saturday, as Tomas Mendez-Beck (Hillsboro, Ore.) broke the 200 butterfly mark to highlight the fourth and final day of the 2013 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Men's Swimming and Diving Championships at East Los Angeles College.
Mendez-Beck advanced to the "B" final in the 200 butterfly after posting a time of 1:50.06, 9/100ths of a second faster than the mark posted by national champion Chris Coley on March 10, 2006, at the NCAA Division II Men's Swimming and Diving Championships. In the evening final, Mendez-Beck set the school record again with a time of 1:49.85, finishing third in the race and 11th overall in the event.
Kyle Moline (Mercer Island, Wash.) and Ali Abadi (Edmonds, Wash.) both reached the bonus final in the 200 butterfly, as Moline finished 18th in the preliminaries with a time of 1:51.00, followed by Abadi in 24th place in 1:52.80. During the bonus final, Moline finished third with a time of 1:51.46 while Abadi touched the wall in eighth place in 1:55.49.
Bart Wanot (Federal Way, Wash.) reached a "B" final for the second consecutive day, qualifying thanks to an 11th place finish in the preliminaries of the 200 backstroke with a time of 1:48.87, the third-fastest in school history. Wanot would finish fourth in his evening race in 1:49.29 for a 12th place finish overall in the event.
Heading into the final event of the meet, Seattle U was three points behind North Dakota for ninth place. Thanks to Wanot, Murray Longbotham (Mercer Island, Wash.), Tyler Carriker (Everett, Wash.), and James Gilmore (Eugene, Ore.), Seattle U posted a time of 3:02.38, .79 seconds ahead of North Dakota, to finish in ninth place in the event and earn four more points than UND for a ninth place finish in the overall championships with 134 points.
Elsewhere in the 200 backstroke preliminaries, Nicolas Morrell (Bend, Ore.) finished 17th with a time of 1:50.05, just ahead of Joe Wertz (Richland, Wash.) in 18th place in 1:50.20 and Andy Cunningham (Cameron Park, Calif.) in 22nd place in 1:51.77. In the bonus final, Morrell finished first in 1:49.39, Wertz touched the wall fifth in 1:50.82, and Cunningham was sixth in 1:51.16. Sam Donohue (Portland, Ore.) also competed in the preliminaries, finishing in 29th place with a time of 1:56.92.
Gilmore advanced to the bonus final in the 200 breaststroke after posting the third-fastest time in program history at 2:04.49 to finish in 20th place in the preliminaries. Gilmore would improve upon that time in the evening, finishing third in the bonus final with a mark of 2:03.66. Also in the 200 breaststroke preliminaries, Chris Lynch (Mukilteo, Wash.) finished in 29th place in 2:06.96, and Gabe Wheeler (Round Rock, Texas) finished in 31st place with a time of 2:07.76.
Carriker posted the second-fastest time in school history in the 100 freestyle, finishing 28th in the preliminaries with a mark of 45.80 seconds. Longbotham finished in 32nd place with a time of 46.19 seconds, exactly one second ahead of Douglas Pizac (Salt Lake City, Utah) in 39th place at 47.19 seconds. Owen Bley-Male (Portland, Ore.) touched the wall with a time of 47.48 seconds for 43rd place, and John Fulmer (Kent, Wash.) finished in 47th place with a mark of 48.21 seconds.
In the longest race of the meet, the 1650 freestyle, Chris Weinert (Gresham, Ore.) posted the third-fastest time in program history, finishing 23rd overall in the event with a mark of 16:09.64. Nick Connors (Richland, Wash.) was right behind him in 24th place with a time of 16:18.54, moving into fifth on the all-time Seattle U top times list in the mile.
"The guys battled all weekend and pushed through when it was needed the most," Seattle U head coach Craig Nisgor said. "James Gilmore and Tomas Mendez-Beck provided extraordinary swims to break those records that had stood for quite a while, and Kyle Moline also had an exceptional meet, notching lifetime-best times in every event he swam this week."
UNLV held off challenges by Wyoming and BYU to win the MPSF men's swimming title with 613 points, just ahead of the Cowboys' 603.5 points and the Cougars' 598 points.
The Seattle University men's swim team looks to continue its improvement as it begins preparations for the 2013-14 campaign. This was the final collegiate meet for seniors Bley-Male, Carriker, Gilmore, Longbotham, Lynch, and Wertz.