Feb. 27, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina will send four men and one woman to a Last Chance Meet this weekend in Athens, Ga., in hopes of lowering their top times to earn a bid to the NCAA Championships. Nicholas Walkotten, James Crawford, Chris Kelly and Andrew Atzhorn will swim for the Carolina men, and Sharntelle McLean will make the trip for the Gamecock women.

All four men will swim the 200 freestyle trying to put together three strong times to go with Kyle Cormier’s school-record 1:34.09 in an attempt to post an automatic qualifying time in the 800 freestyle relay. In addition, Walkotten will look to lower his 200 butterfly time of 1:43.55 – also a school record – to earn an invite to College Station, Texas, in his best event. Walkotten, who currently has the 15th-fastest time in the country this year, needs to shave six-tenths of a second off his time to meet the NCAA automatic qualifying standard of 1:42.95. The 800 free relay automatic qualifying time is 6:23.26; Carolina’s current top time in that event is 6:30.33.

McLean, who set the school record in the 50 freestyle with a 22.65 in November at the Gamecock Invitational, is attempting to go even lower. The NCAA automatic qualifying time is 21.93; McLean is currently ranked 49th in the country.

The meet gets underway Saturday morning at the Gabrielsen Natatorium on the campus of the Univeristy of Georgia. Complete results will be available through georgiadogs.com.