BATON ROUGE — LSU men’s swimmers Hannes Heyl and Craig Hamilton have earned invitations to the 2011 NCAA Championships, it was announced Wednesday.
The men’s meet will be held from March 24-26 at the University of Minnesota’s Aquatic Center in Minneapolis.
Men’s divers Daniel Helm, Brian Gemberling, Matt Vieke and Sean McKinney will attempt to qualify for the meet at the Zone ‘D’ Diving Regional in Austin, Texas, beginning Friday.
Heyl is making his fourth consecutive trip to the NCAA meet as the senior qualified with his personal best of 46.55 seconds in the 100 butterfly. The German, who captured third-place in the 100 fly at the SEC Championships, is seeded 15th in the event and will also compete for points in the 100 backstroke and 100 freestyle.
“We are happy that Hannes will finish out his career qualifying for NCAA’s all four of his years,” co-head coach David Geyer said. “He is in great position to come back and score at the meet, and it would be a great send off for him to finish as an NCAA All-American.”
Hamilton, a sophomore returning to NCAA’s for the second time, received a bid in the 1650 free after he shattered his own school record in the event (15:02.64) at the Georgia Last Chance Meet on Feb. 27. The Edinburgh, Scotland, native will also race in the 500 free as he posted a new program record and ‘B’ cut mark of 4:22.17 at SEC’s.
“For Craig to qualify for the meet again as a sophomore is outstanding,” Geyer said. “He knew he had more in him after conference and was able to have a huge drop at the Last Chance Meet to put him in position to qualify for the meet.”