Kentucky Men’s Swimming and Diving Team Set for 2019 NCAA Championships

AUSTIN, Texas  – The University of Kentucky men’s swimming and diving program is set to compete in the 2019 NCAA Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships March 27-30 in the Lee and Joe Jamail Texas Swimming Center on the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas.
 
Following a noteworthy season that included three appearances in the CSCAA Top 25 and a defeat over Louisville for the first time in 12 years, the No. 24 UK men will send two swimmers and two divers to the NCAA Championships, the most individual swimmers invited since 2016. In addition, in swim and dive meets throughout the season, the men’s team met standards good enough to enter in four relay events. Even while, UK will compete in just two relays – 200 and 400 freestyle relay.
 
Junior Glen Brown will swim in the 200 IM in the national meet after resetting his own school record in the event not once, but twice, just two weeks ago at the Bulldog Invitational in Athens, Georgia. Posting a 1:43.69 in his final swim of the meet, Brown dropped nearly one full second over the year, starting the season with a school record of 1:44.16. The Indiana native is currently the 27th fastest in the nation in the 200 IM.
 
Junior Wyatt Amdor, who is the 29th fastest in the nation in his event, will swim in the 100 breaststroke. The Pennsylvania native reset his career best in the event two times this year, grabbing the school record in his most recent swim a the Bulldog Invitational. Posting a 52.43, he dropped nearly one full second off his time from the start of the year. Prior to his record-setting swim, Amdor posted a career best in the preliminary bout of the 2019 Southeastern Conference Championships on a 52.68 time stamp. It earned him the top seed in the “B” final.
 
Two UK divers will make the trip, senior Seb Masterton and freshman Danny Zhang. Masterton qualified on all three boards – 1-meter springboard, 3-meter springboard and platform. A four-time NCAA qualifier, he is a two-time NCAA All-American with top 16 finishes on platform (2016) and 1-meter springboard (2017). He holds the school record on the 1-meter springboard (423.10), and the third-best scores in program history on the 3-meter springboard (428.15) and platform (423.05). While the England native qualified for the national meet on all three disciplines in 2018, Masterton did not reach finals.
 
Zhang will make his NCAA Championships debut on the 3-meter springboard.  Since joining the program at the turn of the year, the California native is off to a historical start for the men’s program. He collected a bronze medal at the 2019 SEC Championships on the 3-meter springboard for his finals score of 439.50, which became the second-best score in the event in program history. Only a freshman, Zhang holds the best mark in the event of current UK men’s divers. Moreover, Zhang earned his sole collegiate first-place finish by posting a 409.20 in the event to help the UK men defeat Louisville in January for the first time since 2007.
 
In the swimming and diving divisions, only the top 16 finishers from the preliminary round move on to the finals round and receive points – the top eight are in the final heat, while the following eight are in a consolation heat. In finals, the top eight finishers will earn a podium finish and are pegged as NCAA First-Team All-Americans. Finishers ranked nine through sixteen are considered NCAA Honorable Mention All-Americans. It applies to individual and relay events, while there are no preliminary rounds for the 1650 freestyle and the 800 freestyle relay.

Fans are encouraged to refer to the Meet Central page for the most up to date information on the 2019 Men’s Swimming and Diving Championships, including current heat sheets, schedule, live results, final results, broadcast information, and ticket and parking information.
 
ESPN will provide live linear coverage for finals events on ESPN3 Wednesday through Saturday. Preliminary swimming and diving events will be available to watch here.
 
The Kentucky men’s swimming and diving program did not finish in the team standings in 2018. Under sixth-season head coach Lars Jorgensen, the UK men have finished in the team standings three times, scoring the most points in 2014 on eight points for a 37th-place finish.
 
For the latest on the Kentucky swimming and diving program, follow @UKSwimDive on Twitter and on Instagram, on Facebook and on the web at UKathletics.com.