Almeida and 400-Medley Relay Team Advance to NCAA Finals
March 24, 2011 | Swimming & Diving
March 24, 2011
Carlos Almeida set a school record and made the finals of the 200-IM as the Men's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships at University Aquatic Center on the campus of the University of Minnesota got underway in the first day of preliminaries. The men's 400-medley relay team will also return for a second swim tonight.
Almeida, who made up almost a body length in the breast leg of the 200-IM, finished tied for first in his heat with a time of 1:44.58.
The men's 400-medley relay team earned a second swim tonight, qualifying 14th with a time of 3:10.96. Brendon Andrews swam the leadoff backstroke leg in 46.96, Carlos Almeida was next in the water with a breaststroke split of 52.76 . Pedro Oliveira swam the fly leg in 48.33 with Joao De Lucca bringing home the freestyle anchor in 43.01.
The men's 200-free relay team of Brendon Andrews (19.84), Alex Burtch (19.93), Kameron Chastain (19.61) and Joao De Lucca (19.83) put up their fastest effort of the season, with a time of 1:19.21 to finish 18th, just missing the cut of 1:18.88.
The three-day event features trials that will begin at 12 p.m.,diving prelims at 2 p.m. (1:30 p.m. on Saturday) and finals following at 7 p.m. each day.
The finals sessions on Friday and Saturday will be streamed live on ESPN3.com.
The NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships celebrates its 75th season with the 2011 Championships. This is the seventh time Minnesota has hosted the NCAA Championships. The Golden Gophers hosted the very first recorded NCAA Championships in 1937. Since the Aquatic Center was built, Minnesota has previously hosted the NCAA Championships five times (1994, 1997, 2000, 2005 and 2007).
Thirteen (13) teams have captured NCAA Championships titles with Michigan and Ohio State owning the most with 11 crowns leading the way. The Wolverines, however, have won only one title (1995) since 1961. Ohio State hasn't won an NCAA title since 1962.
Since 2000, Auburn and Texas have been the teams to beat. Arizona (2008) is the other team to win a title during the span. Auburn has won six titles since the turn of the century. Texas has four during this span but the important one is the last one as the Longhorns are the defending national champions.
