BATON ROUGE — Three LSU swimmers led by three-time school record holder and All-American Julius Gloeckner open the three-day Men’s NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on Thursday at the Minnesota Aquatic Center.
Events begin at noon Thursday with the 200 freestyle relay preliminaries followed by the 500 free, 200 individual medley, 50 free and 400 medley relay. A finals’ session gets underway at 7 p.m. Two Tigers’ will participate in first-day events.
The top-eight finishers earn first-team All-America honors, while those who place nine through 16 receive honorable mention All-America accolades.
Gloeckner, a sophomore from Germany, enters the meet after qualifying with three school records at the Last Chance Meet in Athens, Ga., in February. He owns more school records than any LSU swimmer in school history.
Gloeckner is seeded 23rd in the 200 IM with a school record time of 1:47.26. That clocking broke Jarrod Marrs’ old record of 1:48.07 set in 1998.
Gloeckner’s best chance of winning an individual national title comes in the 400 IM on Friday. He carries the nation’s fifth-best time into the event (3:46.84), which also ranks second in the Southeastern Conference.
LSU has only produced two individual national champions in program history — Todd Torres in the 100 breaststroke in 1987 and Mark Andrews in the 50 free in 1988.
Gloeckner’s third event is the 200 butterfly on Saturday. The sophomore is seeded 15th out of 33 participants with a school-record mark of 1:45.37.
Junior Miko Malberg returns to the NCAA Championships for the first time since his freshman season. Malberg, a native of Tallinn, Estonia, is ranked 21st in the 50 free (19.78) and 53rd in the 100 free (44.34).
His time of 19.78 in the 50 free is the fifth-fastest time in school history and ranks as the sixth best time in the SEC this season.
Malberg participated in the 50 free at the 2005 NCAA Championships, and he became the first LSU swimmer to post a time in the 19-second range in eight years with a 32nd-place finish (19.83).
Sophomore Christoph Lubenau makes his NCAA debut on Friday as the 17th seed in the 100 butterfly (47.38). Lubenau nearly qualified for the championships as freshman at East Carolina last season. His time of 47.38 ranks as the fourth-best time in school history.
As a team, LSU looks to build on the momentum the women’s squad established last week with its 17th-place finish. Six out of the seven Lady Tigers who participated earned All-America honors as LSU posted its highest finish since 2001.
The LSU men’s team placed 40th last year in Atlanta, Ga. The Tigers have posted top-25 finishes in three out of the last four seasons.
2007 Men’s NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships
Minnesota Aquatic Center
Minneapolis, Minn.
Thursday’s Schedule of Events
Preliminaries (noon)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle
200 individual medley
50 freestyle
400 medley relay
1:30 p.m.
1-meter diving
Finals (7 p.m.)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle
200 individual medley
50 freestyle
1-meter diving (finals)
400 medley relay