The Seattle University men’s swim team got off to a strong start Friday during the first day of the Husky Invitational, hosted by the Husky Swimming Foundation at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center.
In the morning preliminaries, Kyle Moline (Mercer Island, Wash.) posted a personal best in the 500 freestyle with a time of 4:42.52, 13th-fastest in the morning session. The other three Redhawks competing in the 500 freestyle all took part in the evening finals, led by Sascha Stipe (Seattle, Wash.) after a preliminary time of 4:42.67, followed by Douglas Pizac (Salt Lake City, Utah) at 4:42.97 and Nick Connors (Richland, Wash.) at 4:46.28.
Pizac finished in a tie for 12th place overall after improving upon his morning swim, posting a time of 4:42.25 in the “B” final, while Stipe maintained his 14th place position in the same race with a mark of 4:43.70 and Connors ended up in 19th place with a “C” final time of 4:43.81. Lee Van Farowe (Edmonds, Wash.) advanced to the “D” final of the 200 individual medley with a morning time of 1:58.86, improving in the evening session with a mark of 1:57.55 to finish in 26th place overall.
Tomas Mendez-Beck (Hillsboro, Ore.) posted the ninth-fastest time in the 50 freestyle preliminaries at 21.35 seconds, and then set another personal best in the “B” final at 21.28 seconds to finish third in that race and 11th overall. Van Farowe also improved from the morning to the evening, posting a time of 22.23 seconds in the preliminaries and 21.85 seconds to win the “E” final and finish in 33rd place overall.
“We started off strong today after a little bit of rest for the guys, especially with lifetime-best swims from Kyle and Tomas,” Seattle U head coach Craig Nisgor said. “Everyone else basically swam in-season bests, and I think they will continue those performances throughout the rest of the weekend.”
The Seattle University men’s swim team continues competition at the Husky Invitational Saturday, Dec. 7, in the 200 medley relay, the 400 individual medley, the 100 butterfly, the 200 freestyle, the 100 breaststroke, the 100 backstroke, and the 800 freestyle relay. The preliminary session is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., with the finals set to start at 6 p.m.