Men's Swimming Qualifies Four Swimmers and One Relay for Finals
Friday, March 28, 2008 | Men's Swimming & Diving
Three Florida swimmers will be featured in the championship finals while one individual and one relay will swim in the consolation finals following the second day of the 2008 NCAA Championships at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center.
Clark Burckle and Shaune Fraser each picked up the top qualifying times of their events to advance to the championship finals tonight. Burckle will swim in the 400 individual medley championship after touching the wall with a time of 3:42.82 in the second heat of the morning. His swim was the fourth fastest in UF history and serves as the 15th fastest time in NCAA history. Fraser set a new career best in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:33.15 to lead the field out of morning preliminaries. Fraser's time was good enough to be the second fastest in school history and seventh fastest in NCAA history. Burckle will be joined in the final by junior Bradley Ally, who's swim of 3:46.34 was good enough to place him in the final spot of tonight's final.
Omar Pinzon picked up the 11th best time of the morning in the 100 back, finishing fourth in his heat with a time of 47.20. Exactly one second separated first through 11th place in the event. Pinzon was joined by Rex Tullius who took seventh in his heat with a time of 47.87.
Florida also qualified the 400 medley relay team for the consolation final with a combined swim of 1:26.59 to place fourth in the third heat of the morning and ninth overall. The combination of Pinzon, Burckle, Fraser and Daniel Penniman touched the wall with the third fastest time in school history.
Dustin McLarty had the Gators' third fastest time of the morning in the 400 IM, touching the wall with a time of 3:49.85. He was followed by senior Tobias Work who clocked in just 2 one-hundreths of a second behind with a time of 3:49.87. Freshman Logan Storie and Joey Pedraza rounded out Florida's competitors in the event, touching the wall with times of 3:55.27 and 3:55.35 for fifth and eighth place finishes respectively.
Roland Rudolf and Grant Johnson served as the Gators second and third swimmers in the 200 free. Johnson touched the wall with a time of 1:35.69 to miss the consolation final by just one place, finishing 17th overall. Rudolf was second in his heat with a time of 1:36.34.
Florida was unable to qualify a swimmer for the 100 fly, but did come away with a career best and sixth fastest time in school history thanks to the performance of senior Tim Hughes. Hughes touched the wall with a time of 47.24 for a career best time. He was followed by senior J.B. Walsh who finished second in the first heat of the event with a time of 48.55. Daniel Penniman touched the wall fifth in the same heat with a time of 49.60.
The 800 freestyle relay will be swum as part of timed finals along with the consolation and championship finals tonight. Finals will begin at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET) and can be seen via www.swimmingworldmagazine.com. Live results can be found on www.ncaaswim.com. The Gators head into tonight's finals in ninth place with a total of 55 points, just eight points behind eighth place Georgia.
