HOUSTON, Texas — The second day of the 2020 WAC Championships came to a premature end on Thursday, but not before Seattle U men's swimming pieced together a solid performance.
The conference office announced via press release, that a major water main break in the city of Houston forced the closure of the University of Houston campus, which is host site for the WAC Championships. As a result, the WAC canceled Thursday's evening sessions.
After a vote of the coaches, it was decided to score Thursday's preliminary races as timed finals. In addition, because the UH campus will be closed again on Friday, further adjustments have been made to allow just student-athletes, coaches, staff and other essential personnel in CRWC Natatorium for a single-session, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Pacific.
Juan Varela opened the day with a 4:35.85 in the 500 freestyle, a career and lifetime-best mark for the sophomore. Ryan Ascencio (4:37.52), Zach Zenteno (4:37.81), Max Chesno (4:42.43) and Alex Roderick (4:49.72) followed tallying season-best marks. Justin Kalugin meanwhile posted a time of 4:40.15.
In the 50 freestyle, Isaac Parker improved on his career-best notching a time of 20.74. The mark moved the junior up two spots on the program's all-time performance list, tying Chris Fulton for sixth-overall. Senior Greg Raper meanwhile logged a time of 20.35, as he was the only Redhawk on the day to place among the top 16.
Also scoring season-best marks was Tyler Goodspeed (21.09), Emmett Moore (21.25) and Jake Goguen (21.38).
Will Corona also posted a qualifying worthy performance in the 200 IM as he checked in with a career-best time of 1:51.01. Jack Neton followed with a career-best time of 1:53.43—a thousandth of a second from entering the Top 10 chart.
Connor Barringer (1:54.16), Kyle Bailey (1:54.65), Jaden Weiss (1:56.66) and Ryan Shaw (1:56.74) also swam recording season-best times.
Updates regarding the opening of the University of Houston can be found at http://alerts.uh.edu/. The WAC will post any further updates at WACsports.com and on Twitter at @WACsports.