Greenhalgh and Higgins Earn Individual Bids to NCAA Championships
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving Committee announced the participants for the 2016 NCAA Division I Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships today, with two Kentucky swimmers earning a berth to the national championships.
Senior George Greenhalgh and junior Kyle Higgins will make their second career appearances on the national stage, specializing in breaststroke and butterfly, respectively.
Greenhalgh garnered All-America honorable mention in 2014, swimming on Kentucky’s record-breaking 200 medley relay lineup. The senior bounced back from a redshirt season in 2014-15 season to earn his first bid to the NCAA Championships as an individual, qualifying with a UK record time of 52.51 in the 100 breast that ranks 20th in the nation. He also broke his own record in the 200 breast in 1:55.98, and will compete as the 35th-seeded athlete in the event.
Higgins qualified in his specialty event, the 200 fly, and will also compete in the 100 fly and 500 free after notching NCAA B cuts in both. Higgins nabbed the 30th invitation in the 200 fly with his season-best time of 1:43.65, which is three-tenths of a second off her career-best time that ranks second on Kentucky’s all-time list. He enters the 100 fly with a seed time of 47.63, less than half a second off his career mark of 47.21, which is good for fourth all-time. Additionally, Higgins made his way into UK’s top swims in the 500 free this season after swimming a 4:20.36, which is the fourth-fastest in school history.
The NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships will be held on March 23-26 in Atlanta, Ga., hosted by Georgia Tech. The first event for the Wildcats will be the 500 free on Thursday, while Higgins and Greenhalgh will both compete on Friday in their respective 100-yard stroke races. The 200 fly and breast will be contested on Saturday.
Kentucky also awaits the result of the NCAA Zone C Diving Championships, which will determine the NCAA qualifiers for the UK diving squad. The Championships are being held March 10-12 in West Lafayette, Ind.
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter, on Facebook at Facebook.com/UKSwimDive, and on the web at ukathletics.com.
