Men's Swimming Sends Two Relay Teams to NCAA Finals
March 27, 2008 | Swimming & Diving
March 27, 2008
The University of Louisville men's swim team will advance to the finals tonight in two events at the 2008 Men's Division I NCAA Championships March 27-29 in Federal Way, Washington at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center. Both the 200-free relay and the 400-medley relay teams earned a trip to the finals with strong performances in preliminaries Thursday afternoon.
"It couldn't have been a better morning.It couldn't have gone any better, it was fantastic," said an ecstatic Arthur Albiero, U of L head coach, whose team set four school records this morning.
The men's 200-free relay team qualified 21st going 1:20.60 but turned in a blazing time of 1:18.90 to move to 14th, by far the best improvement of any relay team. Andrei Radzionau led off with a school record swim of 19.80 first split. Chris Lindauer was next in the water and went 20.04. Carlos Van Isschot swam third, posting a split of 19.66 and anchor Adam Madarassy had an inspired swim of 19.40.
"That swim alone could have singlehandedly made my day, but there was so much more," said Albiero.
The men's 400-medley relay, a strong event for the Cardinals, qualified 14th with a school record swim of 3:12.19. Carlos Van Isschot led off in the backstroke with a school record split of 47.91. Vali Preda swam the breaststroke leg in 53.47, setting up Adam Madarassy's butterfly leg of 47.57. Andrei Radzionau brought the Cardinals to the wall in the freestyle in 43.23.
"Quite frankly, I am so pleased and proud. This is the fastest meet in the country and we are right in the thick of it. It is a tribute to their resilience and more evidence of the successful future of our program."
Andrei Radzionau also swam the 50-freestyle, posting a time of 19.88 for a 30th place.
