Seven A&M Swimmers Qualify, Four Divers Seek Spots at Zones
Mar 12, 2009 | Men's Swimming and Diving
March 12, 2009
Texas A&M qualified seven swimmers for the 2009 NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, and four Aggie divers will try to earn entry to the meet this weekend at the NCAA Zone D Qualifier at the University of Missouri.
Receiving invitations to the national meet, which will be hosted by Texas A&M at the Student Recreation Natatorium from March 26-28, were seniors Brad Raiford and Shawn Clarke, juniors Jason Bergstrom, Casey Strange and sophomores Boris Loncaric and Balazs Makany.
The Aggies, who will be seeking their 14th straight top 25 national finish, will compete in four of five relays and six individual races. Bergstrom, Raiford and Strange are making return trips to the NCAA meet, while Clarke, Lavery, Loncaric and Makany will be first-timers.
"You always want to qualify a few more, but I was happy with the number of swimmers we advanced to the NCAA Championships," Aggie swimming head coach Jay Holmes said. "We historically get our relays to the NCAA meet, and we were able to get both the freestyle and medley relays qualified this year. Those seven guys give us the ability to score some points. We have the personnel there to do it."
A&M will try to add more scoring punch to its NCAA roster at the Zone D diving qualifier Friday through Sunday at the University of Missouri Aquatic Center. Looking to qualify for the NCAA meet will be senior Eric Sehn, junior Henry Stevens and freshmen Cam McLean and Grant Nel. The men will contest the one-meter on Friday at 10 a.m., the three-meter on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. and the platform on Sunday at 12:30p.m.
"The Zone qualifier and the NCAA meet are what we have been focusing our training on all season long," Aggie diving coach Kevin Wright said. "This meet is the only opportunity for a diver to qualify for the NCAA final. So if you go to this meet and don't have a very good showing, then you're done. It's going to be tough to qualify. This zone only has five available spots, so there will be some All-American, top-eight-type divers that are going to get left home."
