ATHENS, Ga. — The LSU men’s swimming team claimed another school record in the 200-yard freestyle relay Sunday and recorded a season-best time in the 400 freestyle relay to complete a very successful weekend at Georgia’s Last Chance Meet in Athens, Ga.
The Tigers went into the competition hoping to solidify their chances of receiving invitations to the 2009 NCAA Championships, March 26-28, and they will leave Athens feeling very good about their prospects in several events.
A day after shattering the program record in the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1 minute, 18.15 seconds, the same group of Hannes Heyl, Sean LeNeave, Julius Gloeckner and Brandon Selts swam even faster Sunday as the foursome registered a new all-time mark of 1:17.82.
Heyl spearheaded the effort with a lead-off split of 19.75, an NCAA ?B’ cut qualifying time and sixth-fastest in school history. LeNeave, Gloeckner and Selts each followed with blistering splits under 19.50.
Furthermore, the 400 freestyle group of Heyl, LeNeave, Gloeckner and Christoph Lubenau topped the team’s season-best mark of 2:55.37 with a provisional qualifying time of 2:54.06.
Both of those relay times have the Tigers currently ranked in the top-12 nationally in those events. The team also sits in 13th in the 400 medley relay with its top time of 3:10.54. With only one major conference meet remaining, the men’s squad is in great shape to reach NCAA’s in all three of those relays.
The Lady Tigers were scheduled to line up in the 400 freestyle relay but chose not to swim the event.
The LSU men’s and women’s teams will now wait and see who will qualify for the 2009 NCAA Championships. The separate meets will be held on Texas A&M’s campus in College Station, Texas with the women competing March 19-21 and the men competing March 26-28.
The NCAA will release the official psych sheets for the women’s competition this Wednesday. The men’s psych sheets will be unveiled on March 11.
The LSU divers will look to qualify for NCAA’s at the Zone ?B’ Diving Regional in Knoxville, Tenn., March 13-15.