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| Matt Hug |
Missouri S&T will serve as a co-host for the 2008 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships next week in Columbia, Mo., and will be taking 13 of its own swimmers to the four-day meet.
The meet will take place at the three-year-old Mizzou Aquatics Center on the campus of the University of Missouri – the other co-host for the championships – and will run from March 12-15. The men’s and women’s championships will be contested simultaneously over the four days in the first NCAA competition that the university will serve as a host of since the 1996 South Central regional tournament in men’s basketball.
It is the first time that Missouri S&T has been named as the host institution for an NCAA championship event.
During each of the four days, the preliminary rounds will take place during the morning session that will start at 10:30 a.m. each day. The championship and consolation championships will be contested during the evening sessions that begin nightly at 6 p.m., with the exception of the two distance freestyle events and the 800-yard freestyle relay which are timed finals that will take place during both sessions.
The Miner swimming team is hoping to repeat its performance from last season at the national meet where it finished fourth overall. The Miners will have their second-largest contingent of student-athletes in the meet, as 13 individuals will take part in the competition.
Heading the Miners at the meet is senior Matt Hug, who has earned 12 All-America awards at the last three NCAA Division II meets and finished third in two events that he will be competing in next week, the 500- and 1,650-yard freestyle.
Of the 13 individuals S&T will have at the meet, nine made the meet by making an automatic cut in an individual event.
S&T has placed among the top 10 at the NCAA Division II Championships in 11 of the last 12 years and had all 12 of its individuals that competed at last year’s meet earn All-America honors.
Besides Missouri S&T, the meet will have a strong regional flavor at the top of the list. Drury University won both the men???s and women???s national championships in 2007 and Drury???s men have won the last three national titles. Meanwhile, teams from the state of Missouri have won 11 straight women???s championships, as Drury???s title in 2007 snapped Truman State???s six-year run as the national champion; Drury won four straight NCAA titles prior to Truman’s streak.
Some of the other top teams at the meet on the men’s side besides Missouri S&T and Drury include Grand Valley State, St. Cloud State and Delta State, whom the Miners beat in a dual meet earlier this season and again at the New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championships last month. On the women’s side, the top challengers to unseat Drury include South Dakota, St. Cloud State and Minnesota State.
Event Schedule (with Missouri S&T competitors who have qualified to compete in the event)
Wednesday, March 12
1,000-yard freestyle: Matt Hug (Bloomington, Ill.), Andrew Trowbridge (Arlington, Texas)
200-yard individual medley: Jeff Enge (Edmond, Okla./Edmond Memorial)
50-yard freestyle: Kyle Gordon (Superior, Colo./Monarch), David Sanchez-Turner (Madrid, Spain), Paul Reinisch (Wildwood, Mo./Lafayette), Mark Chamberlain (Lake Jackson, Texas/Brazoswood)
200-yard medley relay
Thursday, March 13
200-yard freestyle relay
400-yard individual medley: Danny Murphy (Houston, Texas/Cypress Creek), Enge
100-yard butterfly: Kyle Kammer (Williamsburg, Va./Lafayette), Brian Howell (Norman, Okla./North), Chamberlain, Reinisch
200-yard freestyle: Hug, Sanchez-Turner, Gordon
400-yard medley relay:
Friday, March 14
500-yard freestyle: Hug, Trowbridge, Murphy
100-yard backstroke: Aaron Schmidt (O’Fallon, Ill.), Kammer, Howell
100-yard breaststroke: Zlatan Hamzic (Panceva, Serbia), David Calcara (Olympia, Wash./Capitol)
200-yard butterfly: Howell
800-yard freestyle relay
Saturday, March 15
1,650-yard freestyle: Hug, Trowbridge
100-yard freestyle: Sanchez-Turner, Gordon
200-yard backstroke: Kammer, Schmidt, Enge
200-yard breaststroke: Hamzic, Calcara
400-yard freestyle relay
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