The No. 7 Arizona men’s swimming team heads to Seattle today to compete in the Pacific 10 Conference Championships, facing the fiercest competition the Pac-10 has to offer. The event takes place today through Saturday, with preliminaries beginning at 11 each morning and finals firing up at 6 each evening.

The Wildcats (6-2, 4-2 Pacific 10 Conference) have lost only to No. 2 California (6-1, 3-1) and No. 3 Stanford (6-0, 5-0) on the road earlier this year but are not in their best form because the team saves its energy for later in the season, said Arizona swimming and diving head coach Frank Busch.

Busch said the men are in a similar situation to where the women’s team was last week; they are not at their peak potential, although the women still won their Pac-10 meet.

“”I am hoping we can get some more people qualified,”” Busch said. “”We just need to trace the rest of the conference the toughest we can.””

Busch said it is a good thing the team is not rested because swimming now on little rest will boost their confidence for the NCAA Championships March 23-25.

“”Being tired won’t help us swim better,”” he said. “”We will just compete as we are.””

Busch said the conference has some outstanding competition, as three of the top four ranked teams in the nation were from the Pac-10 last season.

Last year, the Wildcats took fourth at the Pac-10 Championships, finishing behind Stanford, California and No. 9 Southern California (6-3, 2-2), all teams that will be their top competitors this year as well.

“”We are expecting nowhere near the same result with the men as with the women,”” Arizona assistant coach Augie Busch said. “”We would be ecstatic with third place. We need to instill in our guys to go in there and be tough.””

Augie Busch also said he wants the team to be the best on the big stage, which means the upcoming NCAA Championships. He said a lot of teams train for the Pac-10 Championships, but the Wildcats train for the NCAA’s.

“”The men’s conference is stronger than the women’s,”” Augie Busch said. “”We will be fighting with USC for third.””