Indiana sophomore Travis Gulledge qualified for the NCAA Championships at the Last Chance Meets this weekend at Bloomington’s Counsilman Billingsley Aquatics Center.
The Last Chance Meets are a final chance for swimmers to log a time that will qualify for the NCAA Championships before the invites come out Wednesday. The cutoff to getting the invite generally is around the top 235 swimmers, based off qualifying times.
On Friday, Indiana’s Gulledge swam a 51.27 in the men's 100-yard breaststroke, ranking 16th in the NCAA, adding him as a qualifier for the NCAA championships. His previous best was ranked 21st, with 51.39.
Indiana had two of the top three finishers in the 100-yard butterfly. Juniors Max Lestina and Max Cahill finished with 47.16 seconds and 47.46 seconds, respectively. Purdue freshman Brody LePine came in at third with a time of 48.97 seconds, putting them in good position to receive an invite.
On Saturday, Indiana freshman David Kovacs also punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships, with a win in the 200-yard backstroke, producing a 1:39.18. Northwestern sophomore Oliver Kos finished in second with a 1:39.32, also qualifying him.
Three Indiana swimmers swam in the 200-yard freestyle relay, with juniors Mikkel Lee and Dylan Smiley and sophomores Travis Gulledge and Miroslav Knedla all participating. They swam a collective 1:15.36, compared to their first attempt at 1:15.53, which moved them up to ninth, just outside the top eight needed to qualify for the championship final.
Official selections for the NCAA championships will come out next Wednesday, with Indiana in good shape to have extra qualifiers for the competition in Atlanta. Indiana will have at least 3, if not more to compete.
