Men's Swimming Sends Four Individuals and Two Relays to Finals
Thursday, March 27, 2008 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Four Florida swimmers and two relays will be featured in the championship and consolation finals at the 2008 NCAA Championships this evening at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington. The Gators 400 medley relay team will be the lone representatives for Florida in the championship finals.
The Gators' four-some of Omar Pinzon, Clark Burckle, Shaune Fraser, and Daniel Penniman finished third in the second heat of the day with the second fastest time in school history of 3:09.06. The time was good enough for seventh place overall and a place in the championship final. Pinzon's swim of 46.58 in the backstroke was a career best for the sophomore and served as the second fastest time in Florida history.
Roland Rudolf will swim for Florida in the consolation final of the 500 free after swimming to sixth place in the sixth heat with a time of 4:19.29 to finish 14th overall. Fraser, Pinzon and Bradley Ally will appear in the consolation final of the 200 individual medley after finishing with the ninth, 10th and 12th fastest times of the morning preliminaries. Fraser clocked in with a time of 1:45.01 to finish fourth in his heat while Pinzon was second in the fourth heat of the morning with a career best time of 1:45.12 to move up to seventh on UF's all-time top-10 list. Ally was third in the sixth heat with a time of 1:45.44.
Florida will also be represented in the consolation final of the 200 free relay. The Gator squad of Penniman, Fraser, Ally and Jos Smith placed 12th overall and fifth in their heat with the fifth fastest time in school history of 1:18.57. Penniman's split time of 19.77 served as a career best for the senior and moved him from tenth to second on Florida's top-10 list.
Rudolf was joined in the 500 free preliminaries by Cody Kauffman, Logan Storie, Ryan Crete, Joey Pedraza, Tobias Work and Grant Johnson. Aside from Rudolf, Work picked up the Gators best time of the morning with a swim of 4:21.88 to finish sixth in the fifth heat of the morning. Storie followed with a time of 4:22.88 to finish fifth in his heat, wile Kauffman clocked in with a career best time of 4:23.60 to take third in the first heat. Crete would take fifth in the third heat with a time of 4:24.21 while Johnson and Pedraza each placed eighth in their heat with times of 4:25.60 and 4:29.55 respectively.
To go along with his relay swim, Burckle also swam a career best time of 1:46.57 to tie for the tenth fastest time in school history. Dustin McLarty joined Burckle in heat four of the morning, touching in with an eighth place time of 1:49.68.
The 50 freestyle featured a pair of fifth place finishes from two Gators in Smith and Penniman. Smith swam a time of 20.32 in the fifth heat of the morning while Penniman touched in with a time of 20.00 in the third heat.
Finals for today's events will commence at 7 p.m. PT. Live results can be found via www.gatorzone.com or www.ncaaswim.com. Live streaming video of today's swims can be found on www.swimmingworldmagazine.com.
