March 14, 2007
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -
Complete Men's NCAA Championships Psych Sheet in PDF Format
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Looking to end the 2006-07 season in impressive fashion, No. 21 Arizona State University sends five members of its swimming and diving team to , to compete in the 2007 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, held March 15-17 at the .
The three-day championship event will begin Thursday, March 15, with swimming and diving preliminary and finals round events held through Saturday, March 17.
Sun Devil head swimming coach Michael Chasson will lead junior Lucas Azevedo, freshman Ante Cvitkovic, sophomore Gal Nevo and junior CJ Nuess into competition against the nation's elite, while Pacific-10 Conference three-meter and platform diving champion redshirt freshman Micky Benedetti will represent head coach Mark Bradshaw's diving squad.
Azevedo will compete in the 200, 500 and 1650 freestyle events, where he has excelled this season and throughout his career at ASU. A native of , he is seeded 43rd in the 200 freestyle (1:37.68 entry time), 21st in the 500 freestyle (4:21.39) and 16th in the 1650 freestyle (15:09.86).
After making a remarkable impact swimming backstroke during his debut season at ASU, Cvitkovic will appear in the 100 and 200 backstroke events at the NCAA Championships. He is seeded 16th in the 100 backstroke (47.95 entry time) and 37th in the 200 backstroke (1:46.60).
Following an excellent series of performances at the Pac-10 Conference Championships in February, Nevo will look to add national acclaim to his resume. After becoming the first Sun Devil to win the Pac-10 400 IM Championship since 1983, Nevo is seeded eighth in the event for the NCAA Championships (3:47.50 entry time), the highest seed by a Sun Devil. He is also seeded 53rd in the 200 IM (1:49.14 entry time) and 31st in the 1650 freestyle (15:23.85).
Perhaps ASU's most consistent swimmer all season, Nuess will appear in a trio of events in , competing in the 500 and 1650 freestyle, as well as the 400 individual medley. In the 500 free, he is seeded 40th (4:24.14 entry time), 14th in the 1650 free (15:09.34) and 13th in the 400 IM (3:48.43).
Last season, Azevedo, Nevo and Nuess competed at the 2006 NCAA Championships in , as did divers Brant Bingham and Joona Puhakka.
ESPN2 will air a 90-minute NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships show on March 20 at 1 p.m. central. Also, ESPN360 will air Friday and Saturday's finals sessions live on espn360.com complete with video and audio play-by-play.
Schedule of Events:
Thursday, March 15
Preliminaries (noon)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle
200 individual medley
50 freestyle
400 medley relay
1:30 p.m.
1-meter diving
Finals (7 p.m.)
200 freestyle relay
500 freestyle
200 individual medley
50 freestyle
1-meter diving (finals)
400 medley relay
Friday, March 16
Preliminaries (noon)
200 medley relay
400 individual medley
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
1:30 p.m
3-meter diving
Finals (7 p.m.)
200 medley relay
400 individual medley
100 butterfly
200 freestyle
100 breaststroke
100 backstroke
3-meter diving (finals)
800 freestyle relay
Saturday, March 17
Preliminaries (noon)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
400 freestyle relay
1:30 p.m.
platform diving
4:30 p.m.
1650 freestyle (all but last heat of timed finals)
Finals (7 p.m.)
1650 freestyle (last heat of timed finals)
200 backstroke
100 freestyle
200 breaststroke
200 butterfly
platform diving (finals)
400 freestyle relay