March 9, 2008
Short Course Results
Long Course Results
AUBURN - Four Auburn swimmers swam NCAA automatic times Sunday at the James E. Martin Invitational as the Tigers take the final steps in preparing to defend their title at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships.
"Today was a real good day for the Auburn men's swimming team with the "A" cuts from Luke Weniger, Robert Looney and Pascal Wollach," said head coach Richard Quick. "Of course, Cesar Cielo swam an outstanding time in the 100 butterfly that is now the sixth-best in the country. Will Dove swam a great 200 freestyle which also improved our seeding in the 800 freestyle relay. All those swims were real big swims for us and is kind of the first step for us in reaching our goals at the NCAAs."
The James E. Martin Invitational, named in honor of the former Auburn president and namesake of AU's aquatic center, served as a last-chance qualifying meet for the 2008 NCAA Championships. Other teams competing at the one-day event were Florida, Florida A&M, Clemson and Georgia Tech.
Cielo, the 2007 NCAA Swimmer of the Year, swam Auburn's first "A" cut of the day as he touched in with a time of 46.23 in the 100-yard butterfly preliminaries. The time is his fourth individual "A" cut of the season and ranks third all-time at Auburn in the event.
Weniger also earned an "A" cut in the 100-yard fly, improving to a 47.00 in the finals to earn his first NCAA automatic time of the season.
Auburn's other qualifiers from Sunday posted their times while swimming in long course meters.
Wollach was first in as he swam a 56.77 in the 100m backstroke, coming in four-hundredths of a second under the NCAA automatic mark.
Looney, a freshman, was the final qualifier for Auburn as he swam a 1:58.70 in the 200m butterfly, a time that ranks second all-time at Auburn.
With qualifying complete, teams now turn their attention to the selection process for the NCAA Championships. Entries are due to the NCAA on Monday with the official psych sheet slated to be released Wednesday night.
The men's 2008 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships are scheduled for March 27-29 at the King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash.