BATON ROUGE — LSU swimmer Julius Gloeckner is set to compete in the 2008 U.S. Open from July 29 ? Aug. 2 at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center in Minneapolis, Minn.
The senior, who owns the most individual records in program history, is slated to swim in three events at the esteemed competition. The three-time All-American is scheduled to take part in the 400-meter individual medley Wednesday and the 200m freestyle Friday before closing the meet with the 200m IM Saturday.
Gloeckner, a product of Freiburg, Germany, will attempt to qualify for the 2009 World University Games, which will be held in July of 2009 in Belgrade, Serbia. The highest placing athlete in each event at the U.S. Open who will be enrolled as a full-time university student through Jan. 1, 2009 will be invited to the World University Games.
“Julius is a very good swimmer, and I think he can represent us really well,” LSU coach Adam Schmitt said. “He’s going to race against some of the very best. The times to make the U.S. Open are just off the Olympic Trials standards, so it’s not much of a step down.”
In addition to the hundreds of collegiate athletes competing at the Open, 24 members of the U.S. National team are expected to swim at the competition. The meet will begin each morning with the preliminaries at 9 a.m. CST, and the finals will follow at 6 p.m. CST. Full coverage of the U.S. Open and event results will be provided by www.usaswimming.org.