AUBURN, Ala. – The 2019 Men's NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships begin on Thursday for Auburn's contingent of 11 athletes. Auburn will have a total of 18 swims across 12 events as well as a diver in all three events over the course of three days in Austin's Texas Swimming Center.
Auburn has six invited swimmers, one invited diver and four relay alternates in Austin for the championships. Senior Liam McCloskey has the highest-ranked individual swim, checking in at No. 6 in the 100 fly, while junior Santiago Grassi also has a top-16 swim (50 free – 14th). The team also has a top-16 relay as its 1:17.11 in the 200 free relay from the SEC Championships is ranked No. 13.
Freshman diver Conner Pruitt earned his invitation to the championships with three top-8 finishes at the Zone B Diving Championships, his highest coming on the platform (fourth).
The remaining invited swimmers are Foster Ballard, Tommy Brewer, Josh Dannhauser and Spencer Rowe. Attending as relay alternates are David Crossland, Christian Ginieczki, Owen Upchurch and Matthew Yish.
McCloskey (four), Grassi (three) and Brewer (two) have each earned All-America honors previously, with McCloskey and Grassi's all coming on relays while Brewer has a top-16 finish in the 200 breaststroke from last season on his resume along with one relay honor.
Thursday's events will include the 200 free relay, the 500 free (Dannhauser), 200 IM (Brewer), 50 free (Grassi, McCloskey), 1-meter (Pruitt) and 400 medley relay.
Prelims begin at 10 a.m. CT and finals at 6 p.m.
Live scoring from the meet is available through TexasSports.com, Divemeets.com and the Meet Mobile app.
A live video stream is also available of all prelims sessions through TexasSports..com while finals sessions are available through ESPN3.
-- War Eagle –