Swimming: Personal bests at Pac-10s cap off Husky swim season
Erica Metzler
February 27, 2007
Photo by Jarrod Olson.
Barrett Hunter fights to hold onto the lead in the 500-yard freestyle in last month’s dual meet against Simon Frasier and Seattle U. Washington won that meet 112-82.
The UW men's swimming team wrapped up competition at the Pac-10 Championships Saturday night at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center with a sixth-place finish (222 points). The Stanford Cardinal won their 26th-consecutive Pac-10 championship (990.5), followed by Cal (657), Arizona (625), USC (511.5) and Arizona State (372).
The Huskies' lack of a diving program definitely hurt their point total, but did not affect their performances. They went on to have 36 lifetime-best swims and also scored more points this season than they did last year.
Washington had two season-best times to kick off Wednesday's events. The 800-yard freestyle relay team of Scott Spansail, Ivan Perhat, David Bai and Henry Hudson finished sixth with a time of 6:41.20. Spansail's time in the 200 medley marked the fastest of the season with a time of 1:40.24.
The men came out aggressive again on Thursday and Friday, combining for 21 lifetime-best swims. Highlights included swims from Perhat in the 50 freestyle preliminary and final, where he had a lifetime best of 20.50 seconds. Perhat then teamed up with Bret Lundgaard, Yonatan Cohen and Brenton Dowdy to place sixth in the 200 freestyle relay (1:22.19), which is the fastest time of the season. Cohen also had an NCAA consideration time in the 100 breaststroke prelim, which also marked the second-fastest time in school history (54.31).
"I was expecting to swim fast, but this is my first year swimming so I didn't know how fast I would be," Cohen said. "But I am really happy with my performance."
Freshman Erez Fern and sophomore Jon Banker had impressive swims on the final day of competition in the 200 butterfly. Fern had the third-fastest time in school history and placed eighth with an NCAA consideration time of 1:47.86. Banker ended up in ninth and had the fifth-fastest time in school history (1:48.31). Overall, the Huskies posted four top-10 swims on Saturday night.
"We did have some really good swims and a lot of season-bests," Lundgaard said. "It's the beginning step to get to where we want to be in the future."
The men will have to wait to see if anyone has qualified for the NCAA Championships, which will be held March 15-17 in Minneapolis, Minn.
"I think the team got to learn the coaches and the coaches learned the team," Cohen said. "We have come a long way since the beginning, and with the staff and potential our team has, we can be really good and go far in the next few years."
Reach reporter Erica Metzler at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.
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