March 24, 2010
Â
The Texas A&M men's swimming and diving team will be represented by 10 competitors at the 2010 NCAA Championships, which will be contested Friday through Sunday at the McCorkle Aquatic Pavilion on the Ohio State University campus.
ALERT: The NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships were originally scheduled for Thursday through Saturday (March 25-27), but the meet was postponed 24 hours after 18 student-athletes and one coach were stricken by a possible gastrointestinal illness, according to NCAA and Ohio State University officials. The Championships will now run Friday through Sunday (March 26-28).
The Aggies have finished in the top 25 at the NCAA Championships for 14 consecutive years, which is a record for all sports at Texas A&M, but A&M head coach Jay Holmes says the team's goal isn't continuing the top 25 streak. The team's goal, according to Holmes, is a top 10 finish at the NCAA meet, which has been accomplished just twice in the program's history - at the 1999 Championships in Indianapolis and the 1943 Championships in Columbus, Ohio. Last year the Aggies were in the top 10 in the team standings entering the final day, but ended up finishing 12th.
"The top 25 streak isn't something that we talk about with the team," Holmes said. "We've been doing that (finishing in the top 25). In our mind, our goal is getting into the top 10 because that shows that we are getting better."
The Aggies are taking a large and experienced group of competitors to Ohio in pursuit of a top 10 finish. A&M is one of 12 teams at the Championships with double-digit entries at the meet, and seven of the 10 have previously earned All-America honors at the NCAA Championships.
Representing the Aggies are seniors Jason Bergstrom, Nikita Denisyako and Casey Strange; juniors Tyler Welch.
"Obviously taking this many competitors with NCAA experience under their belts is a positive," Holmes said. "One of our program's goals is to build a culture that expects to be competing at the NCAA Championships. Our whole season is pitted on the national meet. We've accomplished nothing so far except we earned a place at the NCAA meet. Now we have to get ready for six sessions of swimming and diving over three days, and do what we've been preparing for all year long."
For the first time in the program's history, all five of its relays qualified for the NCAA Championships. The Aggies are seeded sixth in the 200 medley relay, eighth in the 400 free relay, 10th in the 400 medley relay, 13th in the 200 free relay and 14th in the 800 free relay.
"We pride ourselves on being a `relay school'," Holmes said. "We work very hard at being good in the relays and succeeding. We believe it's the best way to get a lot of people to the NCAA meet. The guys did a great job all year, and they were rewarded by all five of the relays qualifying."
Nel is poised to make some noise at the NCAA Championships after being the high point diver at both the 2010 Big 12 Championships and the NCAA Zone D Regional. Nel was fourth on the three-meter springboard at last year's NCAA meet, but is capable of scoring on all three boards.
"There's no question that Grant is diving well, but his success will depend on how everyone is diving on that specific day," first-year A&M diving coach Jay Lerew said. "It is a tremendously strong field, an Olympic-caliber field, so it will be quite a battle. Grant's list of dives has an extremely high degree of difficulty, but he can do them all. If he's hitting his dives, he's capable of doing very well at this meet."
Fans can follow the action via the online live swimming results at: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-swim/champpage/inc/div1/m-swim-div1-results.html and the live diving results at: http://www.ncaa.com/sports/m-swim/champpage/inc/div1/m-swim-div1-livediveresults.html. NCAA.com will stream both sessions of competition on Thursday and Friday, and the preliminary session on Saturday. ESPN360.com will stream the finals live on Saturday. To access the stream, visit www.ESPN360.com . Click on the FAQs link for software and system requirements, etc. Anyone with a .edu e-mail address is able to obtain access to ESPN360 at no cost.Â