March 26, 2008
The Texas A&M men?â„¢s swimming and diving team will be gunning for its 13th straight top 25 national finish at the 2008 NCAA Men?â„¢s Swimming & Diving Championships Thursday through Saturday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.
Texas A&M is just one of a handful of teams nationally that have finished in the top 25 at the NCAA Championships every season since 1996, and the 12-season streak of top 25 NCAA finishes is an all-sport record at Texas A&M.
?One of our team goals each season is to finish high at the NCAA Championships,? Aggie head coach Jay Holmes said. ?We?â„¢re proud that we?â„¢ve been able to string together a number of top 25 finishes because it shows the consistency of the program. The higher we finish the more points we can contribute in the Director?â„¢s Cup, which is something we want to do as a program.?
The Aggies, who were ranked No. 20 nationally in the regular season dual meet rankings, will be represented by eight swimmers at the Championships. It is the largest contingent of swimmers the Aggies have taken to the national meet since 2005 when they took eight swimmers and two divers.
?Our season-long goal was to get as many people to nationals in different events as we could, and we were able to do that,? Holmes said. ?We brought eight swimmers here. We have swimmers in the free, back, fly and breaststroke, in addition to the relays. We want to take advantage of our opportunities because the guys fought awfully hard to get to the national meet.?
Representing the Aggies at the Championships are seniors Luke Chambless (Cleburne, Texas), Ozzie Gardner (Kearns, Utah) and Alejandro Jacobo (Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico), junior Brad Raiford (Kingwood, Texas) and sophomores Jason Bergstrom (Friendswood, Texas), Nikita Denisyako (Moscow, Russia), Israel Duran (Tijuana, Mexico) and Casey Strange (Houston, Texas).
The eight swimmers will swim in nine individual races and will have an entry in four of the five relays, including the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relays and the 200- and 400-yard medley relays.
Individually, Gardner and Strange will swim the 50- and 100-yard freestyles, Chambless and Jacobo will swim the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, Denisyako is qualified to swim in the 100 and 200 backstrokes and the 200 individual medley, Duran will swim the 100 and 200 butterflies and Bergstrom will contest the 100 backstroke.
The prelims are at 2 p.m. and the finals are at 9 p.m. (CT) each day.