ECU Set For Swimming & Diving Championships
February 16, 2016 | Swimming & Diving
The East Carolina men's swimming and diving team will pursue back-to-back American Athletic Conference titles and the women's squad will look to score its first when the Pirates compete at the 2016 American Swimming and Diving Championships beginning Wednesday, Feb. 17, at the CRWC Natatorium in Houston.
The conference championships span over four days from Wednesday-Saturday, starting with Wednesday's opening finals events beginning at 6 p.m. Action on remaining three days consists of preliminary rounds starting at 10 a.m. and final rounds starting at 6 p.m.
Live results and video will be provided for the 2016 American Swimming & Diving Championships. Both can be found on the Championship Central page on theamerican.org.
The men's team scored 892.5 points -- a 34.5 point edge over runner-up SMU -- to capture their first American Athletic Conference title in any sport, clinching the victory in the final event as Trevor Irish touched just ahead of SMU's Christian Schedubl in the final leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay.
In addition to Irish, ECU returns four other all-conference swimmers from its 2015 championship squad including Michael Dugan, Shawn Hunter, Fran Krznaric and Matt Mullen. Krznaric and Hunter were also a part of the 400-yard freestyle relay team.
Krznaric owns the top time in The American in the 100-yard backstroke (47.70) and 200-yard IM (1:45.81) and second fastest in the 200-yard backstroke this year. Adam Dear holds the top time in the 100-yard butterfly (47.62), while Hunter posted the second-fastest time in the 50-yard freestyle (20.27).
The women's team finished in third-place in its American championship debut a year ago. Bailie Monahan claimed the gold medal in the 200-yard butterfly, silver in the 100-yard butterfly and bronze in the 200-yard IM. Julie Lajoie claimed the bronze medal in the 400-yard IM as did Megan Sellers in the 100-yard breaststroke.
Monahan registered the second-fastest time 100 (59.65) and 200 (2:03.74)-yard IM time in conference this year. Lajoie holds the third-best time in the 400-yard IM, while Vendela Norrman recorded the fourth-fastest conference times in the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events this season.
Normann has posted NCAA B qualifying marks in both breaststroke events with Krznaric meeting the B qualifying standards in the 100-yard backstroke and the 200-yard IM. Dugan has achieved the B qualifying mark in the 200-yard freestyle as had Dear in the 100-yard butterfly.
Players Mentioned
