Olympic coach brings Texas team to NCAA swim championships in Federal Way

Eddie Reese's calendar is booked.

As coach of the 2008 men's U.S. Olympic swimming team, the third time he has held that position, Reese is scheduled to be in Omaha in late June for the Olympic Trials. In August, he'll be in Beijing for the 29th Olympic Games.

This weekend, the coach for nine-time national champion Texas is in Federal Way for the three-day men's NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships starting Thursday at the King County Aquatic Center. It is the first NCAA men's meet hosted by Washington since 1961.

Now in his 30th season at Texas and responsible for all nine Longhorns national titles (the last coming in 2002; Auburn has won the past five), Reese says he finds the annual NCAA meet as intense as any international competition.

"Year in and year out, the NCAA championship is the most exciting meet in the world," said Reese, 66. "And it's the toughest."

"Last year the meet was the toughest it's ever been," he added, "and this year it just stacks up to being even tougher. There are just a lot of real fast swimmers."

Reese, U.S. men's coach at the 1992 and 2004 Olympics and an assistant in 1988, 1996 and 2000, estimates maybe four or five American Olympians could emerge from this NCAA field to join a deep U.S. squad of postgraduate veterans.

He also says perhaps another dozen swimmers competing for U.S. universities might represent their countries in Beijing — chief among them Auburn's Cesar Cielo, a Brazilian seeded first in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle sprints.

At Texas, Reese has cultivated 22 Olympians who have won 21 gold medals, with world-record holders Ian Crocker (butterfly), Brendan Hansen (breaststroke) and Aaron Peirsol (backstroke) among the best known.

Reese politely declined to speculate on which swimmers competing in Federal Way might be swimming for the U.S. in Beijing ("I'll just get myself in trouble," he said), but conceded one of the Longhorns, sophomore freestyle specialist David Walters, is a contender.

Walters was part of the 800-yard free relay team that shattered the American record in that event at the Big 12 conference championship, posting a time of 6:10.55. The previous record (6:14.14) was set in 2007 by a quartet that featured three Olympians, including American swimming titan Michael Phelps.

"David Walters is one of the hardest-working swimmers I've ever coached," Reese said. "He always wants to do more, and he always does it faster than I want him to."

Notes

• Washington did not qualify a swimmer for the meet.

• Texas diver Jonathan Wilcox, a junior, is a Florida transfer and a product of Bellevue High School. Texas swimmer Ryan Verlatti, also a junior, is a Bellarmine Prep grad.

• Auburn's roster includes sophomores Jonathan Hiett (Beamer) and Jeremy Gregory (Rogers). B.J. Johnson, a junior from Garfield, swims for Stanford.

• Before Auburn began its streak of five straight NCAA championships, Texas won the three previous titles (2000-02). "It's probably between us, Michigan, Auburn, Arizona and Stanford," said Reese, whose Texas squad comes in ranked No. 1. "I think anybody who gets hot and has a big meet, any one of those teams can do it."

• Reese says refinements in friction-shredding body suits contribute to decreasing times. New suits being used in international competition are not permitted in the NCAA. "Supposedly they've been worn during 11 world records," Reese said. What makes the new technology so effective? "You're talking to the wrong guy," Reese said.