Tartans to Send Five to NCAA Championships

Mar. 11 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – For the first time since 2005 the men's swimming and diving team for Carnegie Mellon University will send more than two athletes to the Division III NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships. This year's championship will be hosted by The College of Wooster at Corwin M. Nixon Aquatic Center on the campus of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Junior Tom McConnell (Baltimore, Md./Friends School of Baltimore) leads the way for the Tartans and will compete in the 500-yard freestyle, 200-yard freestyle and 1,650-yard freestyle. The junior qualified for the meet in the 1,650 with a time of 16:02.75.

A trio of sophomores join McConnell with their first ever trip to the NCAA Championships. John Johnson (Allentown, Pa.) has the highest seed of all the Tartans with a placement of 11 going into the preliminaries of the 200-yard backstroke. Jeff Dahlen (San Juan Capistrano, Calif./Capistrano) isn't far behind and also qualified in the 200-yard backstroke with a time of 1:53.61. The pair will also compete in the 100-yard backstroke and 50-yard freestyle. Jason Huber (Cherry Hill, N.J.) qualified for the meet in the 100-yard breaststroke with a time of 57.34 and will also compete in the 200-yard breaststroke and 50-yard freestyle.

Freshman Alex Hanson (Burnsville, Minn.) rounds out the qualifiers for the Tartans with his time of 4:06.16 in the 400-yard individual medley. Hanson will also compete in the 500-yard freestyle and 200-yard backstroke during the weekend.

All five will also combine in some fashion to compete in the five relays to go with their individual events.

The championship starts Thursday, March 20 and continues through Saturday, March 22.