Three school records, including an eight-year-old standard, were broken Saturday as the Seattle University men’s swim team concluded competition in the 2014 Western Athletic Conference Swimming and Diving Championships at the Palo Alto College Natatorium.
“It was a big day today, with a bunch of great swims,” Seattle U head coach Craig Nisgor said. “Overall, it was a strong meet. A lot of lifetime-best marks throughout the team, and definitely something to build on for the future.”
Nicolas Morrell (Bend, Ore.) started off the morning by finishing 10th in the preliminaries of the 200 backstroke in 1:47.88, just 2/10ths of a second off the school record. The record would fall in the evening session, as Morrell won the “B” final to finish ninth overall with a time of 1:46.26, an NCAA “B” cut time.
Bart Wanot (Federal Way, Wash.) also earned a personal-best time in the preliminaries, finishing 11th in 1:48.49, and Lee Van Farowe (Edmonds, Wash.) notched the seventh-best mark in program history at 1:52.08. In the evening finals, Wanot finished 15th overall with a time of 1:51.15, while Van Farowe touched the wall third in the “C” final with a mark of 1:53.08.
Tomas Mendez-Beck (Hillsboro, Ore.) broke his own school record in the 200 butterfly that he set at last year’s MPSF Championships, finishing fifth in the preliminaries with a time of 1:48.44. He would finish sixth in the “A” final with a time of 1:48.81.
Kyle Moline (Mercer Island, Wash.) moved up to second on the top times list with a mark of 1:50.06, finishing 10th in the preliminaries. He improved upon that time in the “B” final, winning that race to finish ninth overall in the event with a time of 1:49.69. After posting a preliminary time of 1:51.63, Alec Barnard (Everett, Wash.) earned the fourth-best mark in school history in the evening session, finishing 11th overall with a time of 1:50.20.
Ali Abadi’s (Edmonds, Wash.) preliminary mark of 1:52.44 was his best of the day, as he swam a time of 1:54.57 in the evening. Sascha Stipe (Seattle, Wash.) finished with times of 1:53.90 in the preliminaries and 1:54.04 in the “C” final, and Damon Perry (Sammamish, Wash.) posted a mark of 1:57.25 in the morning before improving to 1:55.88 in the evening.
Nick Connors (Richland, Wash.) started off the evening session by breaking the longest-standing school record in the books, an eight-year old standard in the 1650 freestyle, by 6.5 seconds with a time of 15:50.14, finishing ninth in the event. Chris Weinert (Gresham, Ore.) finished in 12th place at 16:09.59, just faster than his previous personal best set at last year’s MPSF Championships.
Tanner Schelling (Boise, Idaho) swam the second-fastest 100 freestyle time in school history in the morning session, finishing 20th in the preliminaries in 45.47 seconds, and then he finished in 45.51 seconds in the evening session. Douglas Pizac (Salt Lake City, Utah) posted a time of 46.79 seconds, Michael Cox (Maple Valley, Wash.) finished his prelim swim in 47.33 seconds, and John Fulmer (Kent, Wash.) earned a mark of 47.90 seconds.
Gabe Wheeler (Round Rock, Texas) finished 11th in the preliminaries of the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:02.17, at the time third-best in program history. In the evening session, he won the “B” final to finish ninth overall with a time of 2:01.60, second on the all-time top 10 times list.
Connor Webb (Hood River, Ore.) moved up to ninth on the Redhawk top times list with a mark of 2:06.29, good enough for 19th in the preliminary session. He would swim a little faster in the finals session, earning a time of 2:06.21.
As a team, Seattle U finished in seventh place with 193 points. UNLV won the conference title, with Wyoming finishing in second place.
The Seattle University men’s swim team finishes the 2013-14 season with numerous fresh times in the all-time top 10 lists. The conference meet was the final one for seniors Abadi, Mendez-Beck, Morrell, Pizac, and Kieran Schaefer (Sweet Home, Ore.).