Cardinals Send Eight Swimmers to US Nationals
August 01, 2010 | Swimming & Diving
Aug. 1, 2010
Eight University of Louisville swimmers will will compete Aug. 3-7 at the 2010 ConocoPhillips USA Swimming National Championships in Irvine, Calif.
The meet, which will take place at the William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine, is one of the biggest swimming events of the year. The meet will serve as the selection meet for the 2010 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Championships, which will take place in Irvine, August 18-22, and will feature top competitors from Japan, Australia, Canada and more than 20 other countries. Both Nationals and the Pan Pacific Championships will also serve as the selection meets for the 2011 FINA World Championships in Shanghai, China.
Cardinals Riley Martin, Alex Burtch, Michael Pryor, Raine Thompson, Michael Haefner, Chase Grimes, Kris Findorff and Aileen Cole will be in the water with some of the most decorated swimmers in the country.
More than 30 U.S. Olympians, including Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte, Aaron Peirsol, Natalie Coughlin and Rebecca Soni will compete at Nationals as well. The field in Irvine will be highly competitive with the majority of the 2009-2010 U.S. National Swim Team competing. Olympic veterans Jason Lezak and Amanda Beard will both be back in the water as will Olympic medalists Matt Grevers, Katie Hoff, Dana Vollmer, Cullen Jones, Margaret Hoelzer, Christine Magnuson, Peter Vanderkaay and Garrett Weber-Gale.
The National Championships will follow the traditional meet schedule of morning prelims and evening finals. The full competition schedule can be found online here. Finals begin at 6 p.m. PT and prelims begin at 9 a.m. PT.
The competition will be broadcast by NBC in two shows on Aug. 7 and 8. The NBC show on Aug. 7 will air from 4-6 p.m. ET and the show on Aug. 8 will air from 4:30 to 6 p.m. ET. In addition, Universal Sports will broadcast finals LIVE on August 3 (6-8:30 p.m. PT) and 4 (6 - 8 p.m. PT). Olympic gold medalist Rowdy Gaines will serve as the analyst and Dan Hicks will handle the play-by-play duties for the broadcast. The meet will also be webcast LIVE by Swimnetwork.com throughout the duration of the competition.
