March 26, 2009
The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team opened the 2009 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships with a strong morning session on Thursday at the Student Recreation Natatorium.
In the pool, the Aggies earned night swims in the 200-yard freestyle relay and the 400-yard medley relay.
The 400 medley relay of junior Jason Bergstrom, sophomore Nikita Denisyako, Alejandro Jacobo, Israel Duran and Ozzie Gardner. The foursome were the No. 9 qualifiers, just missing a spot in the Championship final by .06 of a second.
In the first race of the day, the Aggie foursome of Makany, junior Casey Strange, senior Brad Raiford and Bergstrom placed fourth in their preliminary heat of the 200 free relay with a season-best time of 1:18.58 to earn a spot in the consolation final. Senior diver Eric Sehn qualified for the eighth Championship final of his illustrious career with a sixth-place effort in the preliminaries with a score of 364.60 points. His freshman teammate Cam McNeal was 11th with a score of 349.45 in the qualifying, and ended up placing eighth in the consolation final with a score of 326.90. Fellow freshman Grant Nel just finished out of the points with an 18th place finish in the prelims with a score of 325.25.
In other action, Strange turned in a time of 19.67 in the 50-yard freestyle, but did not qualify for a night swim.