Program-best eight Eagles are headed to NCAA's next month

Program-best eight Eagles are headed to NCAA's next month

Men's Swimmers Invited by Team

Men's Official Qualification List

Men's Relay Eligibility List

Women's Swimmers Invited by Team

Women's Official Qualification List

Women's Relay Eligibility List

NCAA Release

INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Committee announced on Wednesday the qualifiers for the 2019 NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving Championships as a total of eight Carson-Newman individuals earned the qualifications evenly split with four on each the men's and women's sides.

The total of eight individuals sets a new program best feat for C-N, a mark they also broke last season when they sent seven after the previous school number was five from the 2017 campaign. This marks the program's fourth trip to nationals in its history.

The Qualification Lists below show the invited swimmers with the events in which they achieved an automatically qualifying "A" cut standard or an invited "B" cut standard above the dotted "invited" line and their optional event "B" cut times below the line.

The Invited Swimmers by Team reports below show each student-athlete who was selected by the team and lists the events in which they were selected.

The Relay Eligibility List indicates those institutions that may enter a relay for competition at the championships.

Starting with the men's four individuals, Marcelo Figueiredo returns to the NCAA qualifying field in three different events as an Eagle in the 1000 freestyle where he ranks 18th, the 500 freestyle at 17th, and the 1650 freestyle at 21st in the nation.

Freshman Matthew George earned a spot at nationals joining Figueiredo in the 500-yard freestyle event where he sits at No. 9 overall in D2. He currently holds the school record with a swim of 4:26.51.

Caleb Howell enters the 2019 NCAA Swimming & Diving Championships as a qualifier for three different events as a junior. The Easley, S.C. qualified for both the 200 and 400 varieties of the individual medley races, where he ranks 12th and 10th respectively, as well as the 200 breaststroke with the 13th-best time in the nation. 

Seth Hughes marked the final male to earn a qualifying time for an individual event with a season-low time of 48.00 seconds in the 100-yard backstroke which ranked him 15th in the nation after the completion of the Division II season.

On the women's side, senior Elly Culp earned qualification times in both the 50-yard freestyle and 100-yard butterfly events. The native of West End, N.C. was the last swimmer in for the 50 free with the 27th-best time in the nation at 23.34 seconds. She sat at No. 23 overall in 100 fly.

Meredith Ginn joins George as the only other freshman who qualified for an individual event this season as she earned qualifying times in both the 200 and 400-yard individual medley races. She holds steady at No. 21 and No. 19 following the end of the year in each event respectively. 

CJ Jensen returns to the NCAA's for the second straight season where she has qualified for the 200-yard butterfly where she had the nation's 21st-best time at 2:03.20. She was the first swimmer on the outside looking in for the 400 IM at 4:26.65. Queens' Hayley Blaauw rounded out the top-26 with a time of 4:26.56.

Lisa Postma rounds out the final of the eight total Eagles to represent C-N at the upcoming national championships as she qualified for both the 50 and 100-yard freestyle events as an individual placing 11th and 7th in the nation in each event. 

The championships will be held March 13-16 in Indianapolis, Indiana.

-CN-