The University of Louisville men’s swimming and diving team qualified a school record seven athletes in 11 events for the NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships to be held in Austin, Texas running March 27-29 on the campus of the University of Texas.
U of L will send Caryle Blondell (100 free), Addison Bray (200 breast), Kameron Chastain (100 and 200 breast), Thomas Dahlia (100 and 200 breast), Joao De Lucca (50, 100, 200 free), Aaron Greene (200 back) and Grigory Tarasevich (200 back). U of L will also send Aaron Young, Trevor Carroll, Pedro Coutinho and Matthias Lindenbauer as relay swimmers as well. The eleven all earned All-AAC honors last month.
Divers could join this group, pending the results at the NCAA Zone Qualifying meets.
“We are excited about having qualified a good group who will represent our men’s program at a high level,” said UofL head coach Arthur Albiero. “This has been a very fast year across the board for men’s swimming and we are looking forward to the opportunity to measure our squad against the rest of the country.”
De Lucca looks to defend his 200 free national crown of a year ago, and hopes to improve his last year’s third place finish in the 100 free. He won the 50, 100 and 200 at The American Championships in February.
This is Chastain’s third trip to the big dance. He was 12th in the 100 breast in 2011 and was 10th in the 200 free relay in 2013. Chastain was the AAC champion in the 200 breast and third in the 100.
Blondell was on three winning relay teams (200 Medley, 200 Free Relay, 400 Free Relay) and was second to De Lucca in the 100 free.
Addison Bray was second and third in the 100 breast and 200 breast respectively at The Americans and qualified with a 1:54.89 in the 200 breast.
Thomas Dahlia won the 100 breast and was second in the 200 breast at The Americans and swam on the winning 800 Free Relay, 200 Free Relay, 400-Medley Relay and the 400 Free Relay teams .
Freshman Aaron Greene finished third in the 100 back and second in the 200 back at The Americans.
Fellow freshman and backstroker Grigory Tarasevich set a school record in the 200 back and swept both backstroke events at The Americans as well as swimming on the winning 400 Medley and the 200 Medley Relay.
Blondell, Caryle 100 FR SCY 42.72
Bray, Addison 200 BR SCY 1:54.89
Chastain, Kameron 100 BR SCY 53.07
Dahlia, Thomas 100 BR SCY 52.74
De Lucca, Joao 50 FR SCY 19.45
Greene, Aaron 200 BK SCY 1:42.21
Tarasevich, Grigory 200 BK SCY 1:41.50
