Head coach Seth Huston is in his third season at the helm of the Rice Owls' program and his influence is easy to see. In each of his two previous years at Rice, Huston has helped every member of the team achieve her best personal level of success.

While the Owls' respective individual times have improved, there is also more to the story. By performing at their peak the team has recorded some eye-opening wins - like defeating Miami on the road in Florida, LSU on the road in Baton Rouge, Ohio State, Arkansas, TCU, Colorado State and Washington State just to name a few.

Winning is nothing new to a Huston-coached team. Prior to joining Rice in May of 2002 Huston spent eight years at Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo., where he was the head coach of both the men's and women's teams. He is a four-time Division II women's coach of the year and has won back-to-back Division II national championships in 2001 and 2002. The Truman men tied their best-ever result with a ninth-place finish in 2002.

Huston, 40, has been named coach of the year for three consecutive years and four times in the last five years, and was the Mid East Championships coach of the year from 1995-98. He has also coached the Division II women's swimmer of the year for the past two years. Truman State swimmers set eight NCAA Division II meet records during Huston's tenure, and the school produced more than 100 Division II all-Americas. While at Truman State, Huston coached 22 academic all-Americas - 16 women and six men - and both teams have posted 16 consecutive semesters as CSCAA all-academic teams.

The St. Louis native earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from the University of Tampa in 1988 and a master's from TCU in 1990, serving as an assistant swim coach at both schools. Before landing the head coaching job at Truman State, Huston spent four years as the head coach and program director of Katy Aquatics in Houston, where he was named age group coach of the year in 1992. He built a program that produced three top-seven finishes at the Texas Age Group Championships, numerous state champions and a ninth-place men's finish at the 1994 Junior National Swimming Championships.

An active participant in the U.S. Swimming program, Huston is a member of the College Swim Coaches Association of America as well as the American Swimming Coaches Association. He is an ASCA Level 4 coach, having coached swimmers at all levels of excellence from NCAA all-Americas to Olympic Trial qualifiers.

Huston trains and competes in masters swimming, open-water swimming, and road racing. He has been married to Amy for 13 years, and the couple has three children: Hobie, 11; Hanna, 8; and Eli, 5.