ATHENS, Ga. — LSU swimmer Craig Hamilton improved his program records in the 1000- and 1650-yard freestyle events at the Bulldog Last Chance Meet in Athens, Ga., Sunday and put himself in solid position to earn an invitation to the 2011 NCAA Championships in March.
Hamilton, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, swam a strong NCAA provisional qualifying time of 15 minutes, 2.64 seconds in the mile race, nearly six seconds faster than his school-record mark of 15:08.28 set last season.
His time of 9:06.59 in the first 1000 yards of the race was more than four seconds better than his previous best and also a new program record.
The men’s 200 medley relay squad of James Meyers, Andrei Tuomola, Hannes Heyl and Eric Zeller raced the clock in another time trial Sunday, recording a mark of 1:26.73. The foursome registered a season best and NCAA ‘B’ cut mark of 1:26.14 on Saturday.
LSU will now wait to see which swimmers are officially invited to the 2011 men’s and women’s NCAA Championships, respectively.
The official swimming psych sheet for the women’s competition will be released Wednesday. Senior Jane Trepp, junior Samantha Goates and sophomores Amanda Kendall and Jana Ruimerman are locks to qualify, but as many as five other Lady Tiger swimmers are currently under strong consideration for bids.
On the men’s side, the official psych sheet will be posted Wednesday, March 9. Heyl, Meyers, Zeller, Tuomola, Hamilton and freshman Michael Saco are in contention for bids.
LSU divers Rebecca St. Germain, Elle Schmidt, Brian Gemberling, Daniel Helm, Sean McKinney and Matt Vieke will attempt to qualify for their respective NCAA meets at the Zone ‘D’ Diving Regional in Austin, Texas, from March 11-13.