Men's swimming and diving headed to NCAA meet

[PonyPride]

SMU Men's Swimming and Diving Takes on NCAA Meet
No. 18 Mustangs Look to Crack Top 15

March 26, 2008

Men's NCAA Meet Notes

SEATTLE (SMU)--Eight members of the No. 18 SMU men's swimming and diving team head to Seattle for the 85th Annual Division I Men's Swimming and Diving Championships to be held this Thursday, March 27 through Saturday, March 29.

About the Mustangs: SMU compiled a 6-2 record in dual meets this season, with its only losses coming to No. 2 Arizona and top-ranked Texas. The Mustangs notched wins over Centenary, Air Force, Wyoming, Washington, TCU and Texas A&M. In addition, SMU took the title at Texas A&M's Art Adamson Invitational in November. The Ponies then went on to win its 12th consecutive conference title by winning the Conference USA Invitational on March 1. Eddie Sinnott earned his 11th conference Coach of the Year honors and his third C-USA Coach of the Year award. Alex Hetland was named C-USA Men's Swimmer of the Meet. Sinnott also notched his 100th SMU victory this season, as his Mustangs defeated rival Texas A&M on Feb. 1 at Perkins Natatorium.

Last Time Out: The Mustangs rolled to their 12th-straight conference title, defeating Hawai'i, East Carolina and Cal State Bakersfield. SMU tallied 16 event titles at the invitational, setting 11 new conference records and notching 28 career-fastest swims. As a team, the Mustangs put up 968.5 points to win the meet, earning titles in the following events: 50 free, 100 free, 200 free, 500 free, 100 breast, 200 breast, 200 fly, 100 back, 200 back, 200 IM, 400 IM, 200 free relay, 400 free relay, 800 free relay, 200 medley relay and 400 medley relay.

SMU at the NCAAs: Last season, the Mustangs finished with a final NCAA team ranking of 18th. Since 1990, the Mustangs have only ended one season unranked. The Mustangs have finished in the top 25 all but three times since Sinnott took over the program in the 1989-90 season. SMU's highest ranking ever came in 1983, when the team ended the season ranked second in the country. During Sinnott's tenure, the team's highest finish was in 1996, when the Ponies finished sixth. SMU's last individual title came in 1998, when Lars Frolander won both the 100 free in 42.12 and 100 fly in 45.59. The Mustangs last won a relay title in 1983, when Mook Rhodenbaugh, Steve Lundquist, Bobby Patten and John Spaulding took home gold in the 400 medley relay.

Mustangs at 2008 NCAAs: Representing SMU at this year's NCAAs will be Nate Clark, Brett Denham, Thomas Fadnes, Alex Hetland, Shane Milu, Pontus Renholm, Maverick Smalley and Luka Vrtovec. The Mustangs will enjoy favorable seeding in some events, as Hetland is seeded third in the 100 breast, with his qualifying time only eighteen one-hundredths of a second behind the one seed. In addition, Renholm is seeded 14th in a field of 21 in the 100 back, and all five Mustang relays are seeded 12th or above.

Results: Results will be available throughout the meet here (http://ncaaswim.com/men08/ ). Complete results and SMU recap will be available on SMUMustangs.com following each day's finals.

NCAA meet notes:
http://smumustangs.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_ ... ly-release

[Water Pony]

Top 15 is possible, if most of the relays score points.

[EastStang]

We picked up points in the openning relay, but got DQ'd in the 400 relay. Which was bad since there were only 15 qualifiers. In other words, had we just avoided DQ we could have scored some points. Day 1 22nd place -12 points.

[Hal]

Good luck, Ponies!