SMU men’s swimming & diving sent one swimmer and one diver to the NCAA Championships over the weekend.
Junior standout Mindaugas Sadauskas continued his successful season with a strong showing in both the 50-yard and 100-yard freestyles,
While freshman Devin Burnett competed on the platform, three-meter, and one-meter dive.
In this high level of competition, Sadauskas came ready to swim.
The junior set a personal-best time in his first event, the 50-yard freestyle, finishing with a time of 19.82 seconds.
This time was good enough to tie for 28th in the event.
The winner of this event, University of Texas senior James Feigen, finished with a time of 19.01.
In his next event, Sadauskas tied for 19th in the 100-yard freestyle, touching the wall with a time of 43.29.
The winner of this event was again James Feigen, who finished with a mark of 41.95.
Devin Burnett, experiencing the NCAA Championships for the first time.
He had a strong showing as well.
In the platform dive, Burnett placed 20th with a score of 312.60.
Burnett was one of three freshmen to compete in the platform dive out of 26 total divers.
Then in the three-meter dive, Burnett recorded a total of 310.50.
This score put the freshman at 27th place for the event.
Finally, in the one-meter dive, Burnett placed 31st with a score of 250.65.
In all three of these events, divers from UT and Stanford had the most impressive showings.
These two universities continued their domination through the entire competition.
Texas finished second overall with a score of 491 and Stanford placed third with 426.5.
Neither of these teams could match the intensity of UC-Berkeley.
UCB won its second straight NCAA title with a final total of 535.5.
SMU was not able to accumulate any points at the NCAA Championships, as neither Sadauskas nor Burnett qualified for the finals in their respective events.
However, the SMU men’s swimming and diving was not over looked.
The team as a whole was ranked 22nd a few weeks before the Conference USA Championships on Feb. 18.
The Mustangs went on to win the C-USA Championships, giving SMU even more reason for top 25 consideration.
With the swimming & diving season just about over, all that’s left is the USA Swimming Grand Prix.
This will begin on March 29 in Indianapolis.
Following the Grand Prix, the Mustangs will be getting ready for next fall’s season that is looking to be just as successful as this spring’s season.
